Developer seeks to lease port land

[Chief]

In this morning's printed fishwrapper, there is a headline story about Gramor Development's new group, Columbia Waterfront, LLC, and their efforts to lease a corner of the Boise Cascade site from the Port of Vancouver; supposedly "...for a variety of uses that could include retail and office space, a public plaza or a hotel."

A few observations.

Does this mean that the City of Vancouver is about to help finance access to Boise Cascade so that someone can come in and construct a rival to the People's Hilton three blocks away??

Accompanying this article in the columbian is a primitive map that shows the location of this piece of property. It is triangular in shape, and the northen leg abuts the BNSF rail line, while the western leg runs perpendicular to the tracks; the apex of that triangle is at or very close to the point where Esther Street meets the railroad berm, and it has been reported that a tunnel was being considered for that spot as well.

Is that a coincidence, or has someone at Gramor already seen a preliminary layout for the streets planned at the Boise Cascade Site?? If so it appears that Ester Street would be making a rather sharp right turn as it emerged from a tunnel at that point. I'm no engineer, but I can see that would present some significant design challenges in order to make it work. That means it will be expensive...

The article also dutifully reports that there is still no agreement on how much Gramor, the City, the Port of Vancouver, or the Railroad will each pay for the development. I find it typical behavior that there is plenty of discussion about the split, but no talk about how much total money is being considered.

Keep all of this in mind for some future Saturday morning edition of the columbian, that announces that the City is about to create a "Special Transportation District" for the "Columbia Waterfront Development" that will be financed by General Obligation Bonds that will be paid for by a new $50 license tab fee on all cars in the City of Vancouver; and that is in addition to the $20 fee the City already imposed. That additional fee will be on the ballot all by itself in an off-year election, and will need only 15,000 "Approved" votes to pass. With Public interest in things like this at an all time low, it will likely pass overwhelmingly.

The Port of Vancouver is going to have a special session on Tuesday to consider this issue, since it is Port property that is in question here. I am thinking that the Port of Vancouver likely as not wishes they did not have to get sidetracked on this issue, and would rather be focused on Columbia Gateway, but this has got to be resolved one way or another.

I wonder if the Port is willing to be more forthcoming about actual numbers than the City or Gramor Development have been???

I wonder if there is anyone left in Vancouver who cares??

Developing...

[Chief]

bttt

I'm heading to the Port Offices this morning to attend this session, and see what the Commissioners come up with...

Developing...

[karma]

Can you say, "Port Done Deal??"

[Chief]

Not so fast there karma...

The commissioners of the Port of Vancover met in Executive Session beginning at 7:30 this morning, and it went late until about 9:45 when the Public session began. It lasted until about 11:05 with the Commissioners sending the agreement back to Staff for some work, and resolution of several legal issues. In addicting, there are changes to the agreement that were proposed by Gramor as late as 4:00 yesterday afternoon.

Commissioner Nancy Baker was visibly agitated, when she voiced her concerns about being presssured to agree to this proposal by at least 2 different (and unnamed) Vancouver City Council Critters.

I have a number of questions about this that have not been answered, including...

** How do we know that the agreed upon Lease payments will be adequate, if Gramor has not committed to a final plan, that spells out the final use of the property??

** As IU suspected, the Columbian oversimplified their explanation of what is at stake. This is a very complex real estate transaction that has some major implications for many people down the road.

** There still is no indication what the total cost of the Boise Cascade project will be, even though the planning is fairly advanced. Port Staff presented a number of slides with overviews of the preliminary street plan for the site. As I have long suspected, there really is a plan that exists, and I hope to get a copy of the slides sometime later today. If they were presented in a Public Hearing, that makes them public...

** I am still very concerned about the wisdom of converting Industrial Zoned property to residential/retail. Folks, we abandon our Industrial Land at out economic peril, and that is exactly what is happening at Boise Cascade.

** I do not believe a complete Environmental Survey has been done of the site, so we do not know if that land is suitable for the use intended. Remember, we had an active papermill running on that site for decades, not to mention the proximity of the railroad, and the potential contaminates that brings. The point is, we don't know if part of that site is a "Brown Field" or not, and if it is, it is NOT suitable for a hotel, or a public park, or any of the other activities that Gramor foresees.

The bottom line is that I hope and pray that the Port Commissioners don't fold to the City of Vancouver, and buy themselves a pig in a poke. $17 Million in income over 50 years sounds like great money, but the site has some major problems. Not the least of which is the reported $100 Million worth of site access, streets, sidewalks, landscaping, streetlights, sewers, waterlines, electricity, telephone, and what have you, that needs to go in before the first building is constructed down there.

How much of that development money will the Port of Vancouver be on the hook for??

And since a good portion of their money comes from our wallets, that means that ultimately you and I have to pay for it.

Let's not forget either that Gramor Development wants to put in a Hotel on that property too. That's three blocks or so from the People's Hilton, so they will be in direct competition with each other. Has anyone considered that???

Lots of problems with this, and someone needs to slow things down...

[Chief]

This is a series of three images, that show the properties in question, along with a number of issues that came up recently, that were serious enough for the Commissioners to put off any approval of this plan until next week at the earliest.

Exhibit "A" ishows the entire 3.26 acre parcel overviewed on an aereal view of the Boise Site.

<a href="http://www.clarkblog.org/PORT/Exhibit A pdf.pdf">Exhibit "A"</a>

This second image shows how several properties are overlapping down at the site, and frankly the legal complexities are too difficult for me to adequately explain here, and have them make any sense. Let it suffice as evidence that this is a much more complex issue than the columbian or the City have lead us to believe.

<a href="http://www.clarkblog.org/PORT/columbia_06-14-2007.pdf">Columbia 6-14-2007</a>

[karma]

It's about time someone saw some problems down there. My bet is it will cost more than they say and it won't improve the environment at all.

[tefen]

That does look complicated. Does that mean the Boise-Cascade had been renting port land?

I suppose the port could decide to start using that parcel to load from boat to train, that would be pretty funny to have the entire development enclosed. But more realistically, I would think the rental agreement would be a better deal for the port. Especially given the nature of the properties on either side of the 3.26 acres.

[Chief]

As a matter of fact, yes. the Port of Vancouver had a long term lease with Boise, as well as owning the property that the Quay sits on. Unfortunatley the Port is in this up to their ears, and I think they would rather not be.

At issue too is the fact that the Developer wants the Port to sell a couple of splinters of their property to Gramor, and the Port has a long-time policy of NOT selling their land. But because of the street alignment, there are some "sliver" property issues.

My question is: Is the lease amount enough?? Gramor will not commit to anything specific yet as far as what parcel will be used for what. the use description of these parcels is still very iffy.

The underlying issue though is that the City of Vancouver does not have the money to "invest" in Bosie Cascade, and the Developer is trying to get the City to cough up significant money to pay for the non-existant infrastructure on the site.

My point is that if this development is such a dandy idea, it ought to be able to stand all by itself, without the City of Vancouver having to spend Millions of our Dollars to prop it up.

Any one of you candidates for City Council can feel free to weigh in here any thime you like...

[Chief]

Since nobody else will say it, I guess it's up to me...

Just where in hell is Jerry Oliver??

If I had filed to run against Arch Miller for his seat on the Commission of the Port of Vancouver, (like Jerry Oliver), I would at least make all of the regular meetings, and especially the Special Meetings so I could stay on top of what was really going on at the Port.

But that's just me....

8)

[karma]

I agree with ya Chief but again one needs to know how the game is played? I want to know whom put him up to running and who his friends are?

[Chief]

I don't know, but he has not put forth a position paper, or stood up a website, made a speech, addressed a group, or even done some basic door-belling in the District Neighborhoods.

If you are running for office, you need to RUN!!

Just sayin'...

[Chief]

The Port of Vancouver re-visited this matter again today as part of their regular meeting. Last week's special session highlighted several changes that had to be made to this document before the Port Commissioners would approve it.

All three Commissioners spoke about this today, Commissioner Brian Wolfe was quizzing the Developer and Staff about the details of this lease again.

I do not have a lot of good things to say about the whole Boise Cascade project. I don't think the City has the financial means to be going ahead with this, but as for the Port of Vancouver's part in this, for now I am satisfied that the Commissioners are doing right thing, and that the Port's interests are protected.

The Port will also have a say over the final plan for the site, and I have no doubt they will scrutinize that the same way they have this lease. For now, things move ahead, and the onus is back on Gramor.