Port Gardner Wharf still waits on financing

I want to thank Deane and Leslie Minor for their May 4 letter to the editor regarding the status of the North Marina Redevelopment/Port Gardner Wharf project. While I regularly report to the Port Commission on the status of projects at port meetings, I appreciated the reminder that I needed to update the community as well.

While significant portions of the North Marina redevelopment, including the new 12th Street Yacht Basin and the Craftsmen District (an environmentally state-of-the-art boatyard) have been completed, the Port Gardner Wharf condominium development has been delayed due to fallout from the sub-prime mortgage market crisis, as have several other projects in the local area.

This is because institutional lenders such as General Electric, Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs have stopped lending for all condominium projects throughout the United States. Only the condominium projects that are self-funded, and do not rely upon borrowed money, are currently under construction.

According to Maritime Trust, Port Gardner Wharf will be one of the first condominium projects funded once the institutional investors come back into the marketplace.

I am also pleased to report that the Port of Everett made great effort to keep industrial businesses that were previously located at the North Marina in Snohomish County. We were successful in keeping all but one major industrial tenant in Snohomish County, that one tenant being American Construction, which decided to relocate its facilities to Tacoma. However, Everett Engineering, Everett Ship Yard and American Boiler Works continue to operate in Snohomish County.

The relocation of those businesses provided the port with an opportunity to do a complete environmental cleanup of those former industrial properties while we await the start of construction for Port Gardner Wharf. To date, the port has invested approximately $7 million in environmental cleanup and removed more than 85,000 tons of contaminated soil.

We appreciate your ongoing support and patience during this challenging economic time.

John M. Mohr