The Herald Business Journal


YOUR COUNTY.	YOUR BUSINESS JOURNAL.

Published August 2001

North Marina project aims to attract business, people

By Kimberly Hilden
Herald Business Journal Assistant Editor

An outdoor concert venue, walking trails, restaurants, condos, office space — Everett's North Marina is full of possibilities. Just ask Joel Starr.

Growing up in Spokane, the co-owner of The Flying Pig restaurant saw firsthand what successful waterfront development could lead to in Riverfront Park.

"What a jewel," Starr said about the development on the Spokane River, which includes amusement-park rides, the IMAX Theatre and the Spokane Sculpture Walk. According to the Spokane Visitor's Guide, more than 250,000 visitors each year reach for the brass ring on the 1909 Looff Carrousel at the park.

"Waterfront, on the river, on the Sound, wherever it's going to be, it's always going to be its own attraction," he said.

It's that ability to attract that has the Port of Everett in the midst of redevelopment plans for its North Marina. The focus area extends northward along W. Marine View Drive from the Scuttlebutt Brewing Co. to the Snohomish River channel.

In January, the port hired Chicago-based Maritime Trust Corp. to come up with a redevelopment plan. Since then, the company has been meeting with neighborhood groups, marina users, area businesses and the public to get input on what they'd like to see happen to the area, which now includes marine services, industrial businesses, some commercial tenants and a conference center.

By late this year or early next year, "some final drafts" of the redevelopment proposal will be available for review and acceptance by the Port Commission, said John Mohr, Executive Director of the port. "And then, following that, there will need to be an Environmental Impact Statement done."

Construction is expected to begin in 2003 or 2004, and the "build out" is expected to take five to seven years, Mohr said.

Working with Maritime Trust is a cadre of other companies, Mohr said, including Bothell-based economic analysts BST Associates; dock developer Bellingham Marine; Pentec Environmental and Landau Associates, both of Edmonds; and Dykeman Architects, Shockey Brent Inc. and Gibson Traffic Consultants, all of Everett.

The project cost is projected at $100 million, Mohr said, adding that he has seen estimates as high as $200 million.

"Virtually all of it would be funded by private investors," he said, "and would more than offset the (cost of the) public amenities that will be part of this project as well — and there will be significant public amenities."

Project planners are "looking at event areas," Mohr said. "They'd like to have an outdoor concert venue as part of this (and) certainly a significant amount of walking trail. The port already has over 3 miles of walking trails on our own properties, and we want to expand that."

Along with public amenities, plan developers are eyeing residential, retail, hospitality and office uses for the property.

Paul Sorensen, a market researcher for BST, recently reported to port commissioners on what the North Marina market could sustain, including:

Another 600 boat slips to the 2,000 already there, as well as dry storage of another 300 to 600 boats.
250 to 500 high-end housing units within five years.
50,000 to 70,000 square feet of marine-related retail space and restaurants.
200,000 to 250,000 square feet of office space for high-tech or professional-service companies.

Although large-industrial companies such as American Construction Co. Inc. and American Boiler Works will need to relocate as the North Marina is redeveloped, Mohr said he is hopeful that at least some of them will relocate to the port's Riverside Business Park on the Snohomish River waterfront in north Everett.

And he is careful to point out that the port draws a very "bright distinction" as to what it views as heavy industrial vs. the "maritime support folks, the smaller entities that do boat repair on vessels located in the marina."

"One of the most attractive features of the Everett Marina is that people can get all their boat work done in Everett," he said. "So we want to keep that distinction."

As for Starr, he admits that his knee-jerk reaction to the development was fear for his own downtown business.

What if the waterfront, with all of its financial commitment, developed more completely, more quickly than the heart of downtown? he asked himself. But after some consideration, he sees the North Marina redevelopment as another opportunity to attract people to the area, grow his clientele and revitalize downtown Everett.

"It's what we need ... because if they're going to go there (to the marina), they're going to come to us. If they're going to come to us, they're going to go there, and we all trade these guests," he said.

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