11/21/2007 4:18:00 PM Maritime Center is ready to go to construction bid in January
The Northwest Maritime Center, as designed by the Miller-Hull Partnership of Seattle, is ready to call for bids in January 2008 to construct one of its two buildings. The first phase is for the building at left, the Maritime Heritage & Resource Building. – Art courtesy of Northwest Maritime Center
Stan Cummings, who came aboard as Northwest Maritime Center director early this year, has heard plenty from the skeptics about how many times in the last nine years that actual construction has been announced, and then delayed.
One of the first things Cummings vowed was not to make such an announcement unless it was a for-sure thing.
Cummings can do that now, thanks to a 12-0 vote last Saturday by the NWMC Board of Directors. A call for bids is scheduled for Jan. 28 for construction of the project's main building - an estimated $5 million project.
If all goes well, construction would start later next year and it would be open in 2009.
"There have been a lot of people sitting on the sidelines waiting for some physical progress," Cummings told The Leader. "[Placing a call for bids] isn't exactly breaking ground, but it's a big step in that direction."
David King, who has been part of the local marine trades for more than 20 years, has supported the NWMC since 1999. He is now NWMC board president. Although there have been projections and estimates before, this is the first time the NWMC board has made a resolution to go to bid, he said.
"It's always been the intent to build this facility so it didn't have a huge debt service," King said, and now there is a proper "bridge financing" plan. "We realize there have been many delays, but I think we're a stronger organization than we've ever been in our history. I'm feeling really good about this."
NWMC history
The Northwest Maritime Center, which includes the 31-year-old Wooden Boat Foundation, is an education- and cultural-based entity intended to preserve local and regional maritime resources and heritage. It was officially launched in 1998 as a way to preserve public access and enhance maritime activities on one of the city's last waterfront parcels.
Initially, a facility was to open in 2004. In a business plan from 2002, that date was changed to 2005. Although the former bulk oil plant was decontaminated and a dock built, actual construction of a building was then pushed to 2006. And a year ago - just before Cummings was hired - it was bumped to 2007.
Cummings, who spent 20 years with the Ocean Institute based in Dana Point just outside of San Diego, quickly announced that there would be no more such announcements.
The year 2007 has been good in terms of the organization's operational and financial stability, Cummings said. Equally important, the construction bid climate now is favorable.
"Prices were going up faster than we could raise money, but since August the prices have leveled out and the bidding climate is better than it has been in the last half-dozen years," Cummings said.
King agreed that the timing now is good.
"The costs have escalated quite significantly because the cost of materials has gone up and the delay in getting started," King said of original construction estimates from years ago. "That's why we split the construction phase in two parts. What we accomplished at the retreat [last weekend] was a viable plan for getting the first building built."
First building
The board retreat on Nov. 17 included approval of a business plan that goes beyond construction. It also splits construction into two phases: the larger and more important of the two buildings now, and the second building later.
The Maritime Heritage & Resource Building (15,560 square feet) includes the Wooden Boat Chandlery and retail shop on the prominent corner closest to City Hall. A portion of the ground floor houses the boathouse, used by rowers, kayakers and program users. The second story includes the community meeting rooms overlooking Port Townsend Bay, complete with a catering kitchen.
King said the 150-seat conference facility is not a venue intended for weddings. It's meant to be a facility used in collaboration with the Port Townsend Marine Science Center, Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding and other programs or entities with a water connection.
"It's a space downtown on the water with a world-class view that puts you right on the shore," King said.
Cummings said the conference center aspect is not in competition with Fort Worden State Park. "It's primarily in support of the downtown Port Townsend hotels." There presently is a lack of downtown meeting rooms that can handle large groups.
Estimated cost
Adjoining the meeting rooms is a lobby and reception area for rotating and permanent maritime exhibits. The second floor also includes office space and the H.W. McCurdy Maritime Library.
The estimated cost is in the $5 million range, said Dave Robison, NWMC project manager. The cost includes all the site's operational core systems such as heat, water and electrical.
Robison said that $9.5 million has been raised, which includes $2 million from the state as well as the money already spent to buy and clean up the property and build the dock.
"It's been a long road," Robison said. "The community, the board and all our supporters are ready to see the project mature and grow."
When the second building - which would have a craft demonstration area, wood shop and Discovery Lab - can be started depends upon fundraising, Robison said. The hope is to get it to bid while the first building is under construction.
More skeptics?
Cummings acknowledged another question that skeptics ask: Can the NWMC be financially sustainable? He said the business plan accounts for a transition year of moving into the new building, which "will be lean," but within three years of completing both structures "we can break even. It doesn't mean we can ever stop fundraising, but it will be normal fundraising, not capital campaign fundraising."
King said that people have a right to be skeptical about NWMC, "and we have an obligation to perform."
"We're not doing anything we didn't plan to do in 1999," King said. "It is a local phenomenon with regional implications. It's both a community center for the town and a defining facility for the region."
Leadership gift
Herb Weissblum, a NWMC board member and retired attorney living on Whidbey Island, also pledged $300,000 to support construction of the new building, which makes $9.5 million raised since the project began in 2000.
Weissblum's interest in maritime history and wooden boat sailing began early, having grown up on Rhode Island's Narragansett Bay and Boston's North Shore. He became a seaman in the U.S. Merchant Marine. One of his current interests, besides his active involvement in the organization, is collecting museum-quality ship models, mostly sailing vessels.
"I have been a supporter of the Wooden Boat Foundation since 2003 and have been closely monitoring the progress of the foundation and center over the past couple of years, and I believe now is the time for me to help make this project happen," Weissblum reported in a press release. "I am truly excited about how the new facility will forever preserve and honor the Northwest's rich maritime heritage."
(Contact Patrick J. Sullivan at psullivan@ptleader.com.)
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