Launching a vision
Construction begins on $400 million
waterfront project

Drawing by Macdonald Studio Inc. The marine-oriented, urban neighborhood of Port Gardner Wharf will include 50,000 square feet of retail shops and restaurants, plus 15,000 square feet of office space above the retail space. An esplanade will loop around the development, which will include a 1,000-seat amphitheater, acres of park space and extensive bicycle trails.

By John Wolcott
SCBJ Editor

Construction of a 10-year, $400 million waterfront development is under way in Everett, turning a decades-old industrial site into a new world of condominiums, restaurants, marinas, open markets, marine businesses and a waterfront hotel.

The first phase of Port Gardner Wharf, a visionary master plan in the works since 2000, is launching in October, with workers beginning to install the foundations and infrastructure for 159 condominiums and townhouses, priced from $380,000 to more than $1 million each. Eventually, as many as 660 residences are planned for the North Marina development, sized from 800 to 2,800 square feet.

Rising on ground where American Boiler Works and other businesses once stood, the five- and six-story condos will be part of a new tourism, recreation, shopping and commercial neighborhood with views of Port Gardner Bay, Whidbey Island and the Olympic Peninsula mountain range.

Wharf plans spurring nearby development The Port Gardner Wharf project already is stirring imaginative proposals for other development on the waterfront. Jeld-Wen Inc., an Oregon door manufacturer that recently closed its Everett plant a short distance north of the “wharf” site, announced in July it is proposing its own redevelopment over the next several years. Eagle Crest Inc., the real estate division of Jeld-Wen, has filed a rezone request with the city of Everett that would turn its 53-acre factory site into a waterfront community of condominiums and commercial enterprises. A public park could be included on the waterfront near a 4-acre woodland, along with pedestrian trails. The rezone would include 36 acres of property nearby owned by the Port of Everett, which wants to prepare the site for future development. “If you look at what’s happening in Everett, and the waterfront development that’s taking place, it seems a natural part of the evolution,” said Stuart Woolley, executive vice president of Eagle Crest. The company owns a chain of hotels in Oregon and Arizona and several resorts in Oregon, Washington and Idaho. Among its properties are the new Suncadia resort community and golf course in Roslyn, Wash., and Silver Mountain ski resort near Kellogg, Idaho.

“We’ve been having a very successful marketing program over the last several months,” said Ken Olsen, western region director of land development for Maritime Trust Co., the Chicago-based developer chosen by the Port of Everett to oversee the project. “We placed full-page ads in airline magazines, including Alaska, United and Southwest, as well as in Cruising World, Yachting and other publications. Judging from the response, we’ll probably be oversubscribed on the first phase of residential units. The first occupants should be in by the summer of 2008.”

The project’s four major phases will be developed as separate yet interconnected neighborhoods, each one with retail stores, condominiums, townhouses, offices, plazas and open spaces, Olsen said.

“We’ve had great interest in reservations for the residences and a lot of interest from commercial sources. We’re talking to a number of restaurants with names you’ll recognize when we can release them, and we’ve had queries about the waterfront hotel that will be built on the site of the former Everett Yacht Club, which is presently our field office,” he said.

Once Maritime Trust and the Port of Everett begin contracting for construction of Port Gardner Wharf’s neighborhoods, streets, utilities and other infrastructure, there will be a lot of opportunity for area builders and subcontractors to be a part of the project, Olsen said.

Already, in July, the port amended its contract with Hoffman Construction, the Portland-based firm whose Seattle office is the wharf project’s general contractor and construction manager, to include the marine-themed Craftsmen District. Hoffman will be responsible for the district’s roads, utilities, boatyard, new marina operations building, public access areas and parking. Most of the work will be done by subcontractors.

Over the next decade, scores of companies and hundreds of workers will be involved in creating the new community. Employment payrolls for architects, builders and others involved in the transformation of old industrial sites are expected to reach $35 million annually, according to project studies.

“This is an unusual project,” Olsen said. “I don’t know of another coastal city in the state that has the option to develop a mile-and-a-half of prime waterfront property into a community like we’re doing here.”

The marine-oriented, urban neighborhood will include 50,000 square feet of retail shops and restaurants, plus 15,000 square feet of office space above the retail space. An esplanade will loop around the development, which will include a 1,000-seat amphitheater, acres of park space and extensive bicycle trails.

Put another way, Port Gardner Wharf ultimately will include 22 acres of marine sales and services, 8 acres of housing, 7.5 acres of retail and professional office space, 7 acres of offices, 1.2 acres of hotels and restaurants, and 7 acres of parks and other public open space.

“We are now able to begin transforming the North Marina from an underutilized industrial area to a vibrant and pedestrian-friendly waterfront community,” said John Mohr, executive director of the Port of Everett.

Where 443 people were employed in the old industrial area, mostly in manufacturing plants, boat sales and marine services, Port Gardner Wharf is expected to have an employment level of 2,253 jobs — including 1,677 in offices, 360 in nonmarine retail stores and 126 in restaurants. Another 91 jobs will fill the “craftsmen” area, where businesses will focus on boat sales, services and repairs.

The retail mix will include stores with distinctive gifts, clothing, books, jewelry, stationery, toys, gourmet food and wine, and fresh food. There also will be fine-dining restaurants, cafes, bistros, pubs, coffee shops and a 120-room hotel and spa.

Once it’s complete, commerce at the “wharf” development is expected to generate $105 million annually in direct payrolls and income, with a ripple effect that will indirectly generate another $142 million in total income throughout Snohomish County, according to Port of Everett projections.

Dennis Erickson, a former Everett city planner who now works for the local office of Portland-based David Evans & Associates, said being deeply involved in the design of the project has convinced him it will be a major step forward in the city’s urban renewal effort and “make the area even more of a boaters’ destination in the Northwest.”

Before the first phase is completed in 2008, the second phase will have begun in the spring of 2007, with the third phase of development scheduled to start in the winter of 2008. Completion of the entire Port Gardner Wharf project could extend into 2015.

In addition to Maritime Trust’s project, the Port of Everett’s own capital improvement plan for its work on the “wharf” project totals $39.3 million, plus another $20 million for the development of the adjacent 12th Street Yacht Basin.

The success of the development is expected to depend heavily not only on intermingling housing, offices, stores and open space into attractive neighborhoods but also on blending those neighborhoods with the maritime environment that Everett enjoys.

Already, the Port of Everett’s 2,050-slip marina is the second largest on the West Coast, serving powerboats, sailboats and commercial fishing vessels. Now, a $20 million port expansion on the north side of the wharf development is adding another 230 spaces. They will provide hard-to-find space for large yachts 45 to 70 feet long, with end-ties up to 143 feet for larger craft.

The anchor tenant for the new Craftsmen District will be Bayside Marine, an existing tenant at the port for many years. The business recently announced it has completed its planning and financing for a $4 million boat retail center, service facility and dry-storage area. Beginning work this fall, and planning on a spring opening, the business is expected to be among the first completed in the Port Gardner Wharf development. Already, 85 people have reserved storage space, and owners Jeff LaLone and Dan Hatch expect all 150 spaces will be taken when the facility opens in March.

When the district is finished early next year, it will offer a new Travelift dock with more than double the lifting capacity of the present equipment, plus a new dry-stack storage facility for up to 200 boats, boat and yacht sales offices, kayak rentals, marine-based suppliers, boat repair and restoration shops, sail makers and other maritime facilities.

For more information, visit www.portgardnerwharf.com; contact Eric Russell, director of properties and development, Port of Everett, at 425-388-0604 or ericr@portofeverett.com; or contact Ken Olsen, director of land development, Maritime Trust Co., 425-339-1222 or kolsen@maritimetrust.com.