PORT TOWNSEND — Quincy Dock is falling down, and Port of Port Townsend officials are weighing whether the condemned former Port Townsend ferry landing poses a safety hazard, if not by land then by sea.
Rotting beams of the A-frame structure are beginning to sag as nature and gravity take their toll.
“It needs to be repaired,” said developer Kevin Harris, adding he has known for about a year that the dock was falling top down. “That’s why I proposed my project.”
Harris, who leases the condemned dock from the port in hopes of obtaining shoreline permits to restore it and add a seasonal mini-marina of docks adjacent to his Clam Cannery Hotel, has been given the port commissioners’ blessing to pursue the project.
Recent inspection
Port Executive Director Larry Crockett, after recently inspecting the dock and tidelands the port owns under the dock, noticed the sagging old timbers and alerted the port commissioners.
Crockett said that, although the dock is fenced off from Quincy Street access, he wondered if it poses a hazard from the tidelands side of the shore.
“We might want to look at some signage from the water side,” Crockett said of the dock the city of Port Townsend and the port condemned 10 years ago.
“If the superstructure collapses in on it, I don’t think the decking would hold up to it. I don’t think it’s strong enough.”
Seaplanes, boats
Harris wants to repair the dock for a seaplane landing and boat moorage during summer season, then pull the floats for winter storage.
The dock would be designed so seaplanes could fly into Port Townsend Bay from Seattle and Victoria and Vancouver, British Columbia, and tie up there.
Kenmore Air officials have already expressed interest in landing the company’s seaplanes out of Elliott Bay and dropping off passengers at Quincy Dock.
Harris said he has applied with city and state agencies, as well as the federal Corps of Engineers, for shoreline permits that would clear the way for the Quincy Dock work.
“We’re talking about 12 to 15 months to go through the whole process,” Harris said. “We feel it will get approval because that’s the historic use of the property.”
Harris figures it would cost at least $785,000 to repair the dock as he plans.
Having overseen dock work for the port, Crockett sees a more than $2 million cost, but as for Harris’ proposal, the port executive said, “More power to him.”
The port commissioners and the city would have the final say on the project’s design, which would include the seaplane landing and up to five boat slips.
“We just want to put in a nice facility, and hopefully, the demand will carry it,” Harris said of the proposed U-shaped dock design with a gangway in the middle.
Harris envisions float docks extending from restored Quincy Dock about 40 feet.
Besides a landing tie-up dock for a Kenmore Air seaplane, Harris said the docks would be designed to accommodate a cruise ship, tall ship or other large vessel moorage as well as smaller boats.
Harris said he hopes to maintain the historic look and feel of the Quincy dock.
He has spent more than $1 million converting the historic Clam Cannery close to Quincy Dock to condominiums, but seeing a weak condo market, he got city approval to convert it once more to a luxury hotel.
Harris sees yacht owners tying up their float docks to stay at his hotel and believes Seattle visitors would take advantage of the 20-minute flight aboard a Kenmore Air 10-seat float plane.
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Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
