OLYMPIA, WASHINGTON (JAN. 5, 2021) – Each year, the Washington Public Ports Association (WPPA) recognizes the extraordinary achievements of ports across the state in the categories of job creation, community engagement, creative partnership, and environmental stewardship.

WPPA is pleased to recognize the achievements of the Port of Everett in their dedication to creating sustainable, family-wage jobs for the people of their port community with the 2020 Job Creator of the Year Award. Creating jobs for community prosperity is at the heart of public ports’ missions, and the Port of Everett provided exemplary planning, strategy, and leadership to create long-term job growth for Everett.

The story is best told in the Port of Everett’s own words, taken from their award application:

“After two decades of steady public-private investment, the Port of Everett’s strategic, forward-thinking vision for Riverside Business Park, a former brownfield mill site, has been realized. The Port has effectively transformed the 85-acre property vacant property into a light-industrial business park and major job center. The site now supports 600+ direct jobs, 2,300+ indirect jobs, 700+ temporary construction jobs...and counting. The following submittal summarizes the Port’s role in leading environmental remediation and public infrastructure development at the site to effectively spur private investment and job creation.

For more than a century, the Port of Everett’s statutory charter has been creating economic opportunities and jobs. As the community’s economic engine, the Port continues to act in this capacity today, delivering its mission through a vision of a balanced working waterfront that protects the economic value of our lands – lands that at some point in their history have served our region’s economy as a thriving mill site. With Everett’s waterfront mills a distant memory today, their legacies continue to live on at their former waterfront sites, leaving behind environmental impairments, but also, offering the promise of new opportunity.

One of the Port’s top strategic initiatives is restoring and transforming these former waterfront mill sites into sustainable, 21st century job producing hubs by pairing envi- ronmental cleanup and economic development. This effort brings the highest and best uses to these sites to better serve our community and grow jobs. The Port of Everett’s Riverside Business Park is an exemplary example of how this strategic initiative is successful, and why we feel this project is an outstanding job creator in our Port District.

In 1998, the Port of Everett purchased an 85-acre vacant property along the Snohomish River from the Weyerhaeuser Company – a site known today as the Riverside Business Park. The Weyerhaeuser Company operated its Mill B operation on the site from 1915 through the 1980’s. This was the first electric sawmill of its time, and for decades, represented Everett’s largest employment center, with around 1,800 to 2,000 employees.

With the mill long gone, and in line with the Port’s mission to create economic opportunities and jobs, the Port envisioned the creation of an industrial park on the site that could do just that. The property was divided and zoned for heavy to light industrial use, and over the years, the Port continued to make improvements to the site, including a major cleanup removing legacy contamination, bringing in thousands of cubic yards of clean fill to raise the site out of floodplain levels and constructing infrastructure to support future site development including roadways, utilities, view- points and trails and adding native riparian landscaping.

All the Port’s environmental remediation work and subsequent development at the business park have proven to be an economic success. Today, the Business Park is thriving, with all parcels sold or operating under a ground lease. The site serves a variety of light-industrial users representing regional service functions from aerospace supply chain to trucking and distribution. Companies at the site include Motor Trucks International, Safran (a French aerospace company), FedEx Freight, Amazon, Canteen, Snohomish County, Republic Services Intermodal, and more to come with development of a few parcels under development planning and tenant recruitment now.

Filling the site with light industrial users has made this park an outstanding job creator. More than 600 are employed here now, and by full build out in the near future, the land will support 800+ direct jobs, 2,300+ indirect jobs, 700+ temporary construction jobs, and contribute $730,000 annually to state and local tax base.

This represents a prime example of the Port’s proven track record to leverage public-private investment to restore former mill sites to bring them back into job and economic producing use. In addition to its economic benefits, the development integrates quality of life and sustainability benefits. The Port has invested $1.3 million to create a connected shoreline trail system here featuring viewpoints, and habitat/environmentally friendly landscaping enhance quality of life in our community and for employees of the business park.”

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ABOUT WASHINGTON PUBLIC PORTS ASSOCIATION
As a state legislative and regulatory advocacy organization, the Washington Public Ports Association (WPPA) provides zealous representation for the state’s ports. The WPPA was formed by the legislature in 1961 to represent public port districts throughout Washington, serving as the focus through which ports work cooperatively to develop policy direction, share information, and address issues on economic development, trade, transportation, and environmental stewardship. Public port districts offer a wide range of locally governed services, including marine terminals, barge facilities, industrial development, marinas, airports, railroads, and tourism promotion.
 
MEDIA CONTACT
Jessica Wilson
Washington Public Ports Association
E: jwilson@washingtonports.org
T: 360-528-0405