Published February 2005

Potential buyer emerges
for Riverside Industrial Park

SCBJ Staff

The Port of Everett has a potential tenant for its Riverside Industrial Park that wants to buy the entire property and build a $100 million lumber mill and power plant that would employ about 200 people.

The port is still negotiating a price, but California-based Sierra Pacific Industries has submitted a letter of intent to buy the property and plans a $1 million deposit.

Sierra has 18 plants in California and another near Aberdeen. It employs about 4,000 people at its plants.

The proposed Everett mill was described as a high-tech operation that would use lasers and computers to get the most lumber from a log. The wood waste produced would be burned to create steam to dry the lumber and generate electricity.

Planned is a power plant that would produce 25 megawatts of electricity, enough to power about 25,000 homes. The power would either be sold to the Snohomish County PUD or to a private buyer.

Sierra spokesman Ed Bond said the new mill wouldn’t issue any smoke.

“There are no smokestacks,” he said. “It’s very clean and very efficient. There’s only steam.”

Red Emmerson, Sierra’s president, said jobs in Sierra’s mills pay an average of $18 an hour. They also include health benefits with no employee co-payments, a retirement plan and life insurance.

While logging has declined dramatically in Western Washington, it’s now on the rebound, port Director John Mohr said.

Port lawyer Brad Cattle said the port hopes to negotiate a price and act on the deal fairly soon.

A public hearing on the proposal will likely take place at the Feb. 1 commission meeting , he said.

The port purchased the property from Weyerhaeuser Corp. in 1996 and spent two years cleaning up contaminated soil at the site. So far, it has spent $19 million to buy the property, clean it up and prepare for new tenants.

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