Port of Bellingham continues economic development priority

PORT OF BELLINGHAM UPDATE BP

PHOTO: iStockphoto. com/SEASTOCK

Economic development continues as top priority in the coming year

Ken Bell

Let me start by saying thank you to the business community for supporting my candidacy. I am honored by the tremendous outpouring of support, and I hope to represent you well during the next four years. The Port of Bellingham will look exactly like it did over the last four years, so you can expect more of the same from the Commission. Michael Shepard was easily re-elected, and Bobbie Briscoe will be there for at least two more years. We all work well together and have a mutual respect, which goes a long way towards moving the ball down the field.

On the waterfront, we renegotiated our agreement with Harcourt and put 7.8 acres back into Port control. We will be actively seeking projects for those properties. We will have a request for proposals issued for a hotel/convention center project at the Board Mill site. Harcourt will continue to finish what they started and build its condo project and retain ownership of the Granary building. Whatcom Community Foundation (Millworks LLC) is spearheading a commercial kitchen and food campus project, in partnership with Mercy Housing, to build an affordable workforce and family housing project and educational center. You will see construction on that property late 2022 and early 2023. You will see the retail community around the pump track continue to grow in 2022 as we add more vendors at the container village called Trackside. Interest is high from vendors, so expect more activity on this property.

The greatest accomplishments for this Commission and our amazing staff was our success at Bellingham International Airport. We brought in Southwest Airlines and reached an agreement with Alpha Air Park to develop a private commercial facility at our old Washington International Guard site. Southwest Airlines will open new avenues for air travel and has committed tremendous resources to support the expansion of services at BLI. The addition of a major airline brings increased competition and access to more markets. We expect to see more cities added as soon as the border with Canada finally opens and Southwest is able to assess the needs of our community. The private investment by Alpha will significantly enhance corporate travel into this area and will enhance our visibil-

ity and profile within the commercial airline community.

At the waterfront, a landmark agreement between the Lummi Nation and the Port removed challenges to repairing and replacing existing infrastructure. The agreement also provides the tribal fishing community with much-needed moorage. We are now in the process of rebuilding critical infrastructure and recently purchased a container crane, so this area will be adding jobs soon. ABC Recycling will begin shipping here this year, and we will continue to ship rocks from Skagit County to the Columbia River to shore up damaged levees under an agreement with the Army Corps of Engineers.

The United States Maritime Administration recently designated Bellingham a “Marine Highway” with connections to Southern Oregon and San Diego. With improvements to the dock and a reconnection to the railway, we can begin receiving shipments as soon as agreements are in place. We are committed to improvements at Blaine Harbor and the I & J Waterway and will finish the work we started in those crucial employment centers.

Rural broadband continues to be a high priority. The Port is committed to putting in infrastructure so it can be accessed by vendors serving every household in the county. We learned how important this was during the pandemic.

We have started the work necessary to make the Georgia Pacific Aerated Stabilization Basin pond a usable asset. The Port will be cleaning up this area by dredging the pond and creating new industrial land on the waterfront.

All of these projects are budgeted and represent our priorities for the coming year. In addition, we will continue to focus on economic development and maintain operations at the Ferry Terminal and rail facilities in Fairhaven. ■

Bellingham Port Commissioner Ken Bell has been a Bellingham business owner for over 20 years. He is president of Best Recycling, a waste management company known for its ability to work in very remote locations like the Yukon Territory, Alaska, Antarctica, Greenland and the Aleutian Islands.

Bell is also CEO of the Iron Creek Group, a company with patented revolutionary thermal remediation technologies used for cleaning up contaminated soils. He has worked with major ports throughout the world and has experience working on contaminated property redevelopment projects like those that exist at the Port of Bellingham.

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