The Grays Harbor Historical Seaport Authority is looking optimistically into the future, with a new facility coming together and surplus land receiving attention from interested parties.
The Seaport, a public development authority created by the City of Aberdeen, is in transition from its previous facility off the beaten path in Junction City to its new facility on the banks of the Chehalis River in South Aberdeen, a short jaunt from downtown.
The organization is getting settled and is looking at how to relieve itself of the retired property.
“We’re standing with one foot in each boat,” Executive Director Les Bolton said. “You can’t stay like that for long before you end up in the water.”
A back portion of the Junction City property — more than 170 acres — will be sold to the Chehalis River Basin Land Trust. A new appraisal of the property currently is underway and is expected to be completed later this month. By mid January, the Historical Seaport expects to have final numbers available.
The Grays Harbor County Assessor’s Office lists the assessed value of the Seaport’s entire 214-acre Junction City site at $618,500 for the land and $560,270 for the building, for a total assessed value of just short of $1.2 million.
Whether to sell or lease the 40 acres remaining after the sale to the land trust is the question the Seaport must answer next, as several parties have expressed interest in leasing the remaining acreage, Bolton said.
A trucking company, Sierra Pacific Industries, which operates a sawmill nearby, and four separate commercial marijuana grow operations have contacted the Seaport for details.
“I wouldn’t say we’re going one way or the other with the lease,” Bolton said.
While commercial marijuana is somewhat of a no-man’s-land in the federal legal realm, Bolton said the Seaport has done enough research on leasing to that type of operation to move forward in discussions.
“It appears that there isn’t a conflict,” Bolton said. “We’ve looked at the Port of Willapa Harbor and we’ve had our attorney look at it.”
If leasing to a marijuana operation conflicts with federal grants, it’s generally a moot point to the organization.
“We haven’t received a federal grant in maybe 14 years, so that’s not a big issue for us,” Bolton said.
And discussions with any potential lessees are so premature that the organization hasn’t fully researched the complete impacts, positive or negative.
“From our end, we haven’t signed a paper,” Bolton said. “But we’ve done some research that makes us feel like it could be an option.”
Another option would be to sell the remaining acreage, too.
“If we had someone who was an interested buyer, I don’t believe an outright sale is out of the question,” Bolton said.
Any sale of property would have to be approved through the Seaport board.
For now, the organization has its eyes on the future with all hands on deck for Saturday “work parties.”
The organization’s new facility, Seaport Landing — a mixed-use waterfront development hoping to blend small business, arts, heritage, recreation and education — will help economically stabilize the city, organizers hope.
When a large business comes into town, it can bring 200 or more jobs, but if that business fails it means 200 people without work. The Seaport model would bring a similar number of jobs through various entities, meaning a single failing business won’t result in a failing local economy.
“I’d much rather see 20 to 40 businesses with five employees than one with 100 employees,” Bolton said. The new facility also will increase educational opportunities, highlighting the organization’s spar lathe.
At the former site, the spar lathe could be viewed at a distance, but those who came to see it wouldn’t have a good look.
And people came. “We’ve had people come from literally 1,000 miles away to see the lathe,” Bolton said. “It’s a unique, 85-year-old piece of equipment we’ve rebuilt.”
The lathe hasn’t yet been moved to its new home, but when it is, it will be part of what Bolton calls a “working exhibit,” where curious spectators can use a walkway above to watch the lathe operator craft a spar.
Seaport Landing is located at 500 North Custer Street. The board meets at 6 p.m. every fourth Thursday of the month at Seaport Landing.
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