PORT ANGELES – Port of Port Angeles Commissioners heard three proposals on the future of John Wayne Marina at their regular meeting Tuesday. Two marina management companies and representatives from the City of Sequim presented their ideas to take over management or, in the case of Sequim, ownership of the marina.
Sequim City Manager Charlie Bush, City Attorney Kristina Nelson-Gross and Public Works Director David Garlington arrived with plenty of reasons to suspect that theirs was the only proposal that would be submitted by today’s deadline. Our story last month revealed that the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe had decided not to submit a proposal, and Port Director Karen Goschen told KONP two weeks ago that Sequim’s proposal, which calls for a transfer of ownership and management with no money changing hands, was the only proposal submitted after the nine month period.
The first marina management company to present was Marsh Andersen LLC of Bainbridge Island, which owns and operates marinas throughout the Pacific Northwest. Spokesman Bob Wise says his company would seek a 50-year contract to operate the marina and would invest all monies in infrastructure upgrades early on.
“So our proposed engagement is, we’ll do a long-term lease with annual payments to the Port, that being an annuity stream to the Port going forward. We think it’s important that the Port continue to receive money from the marina going forward. We would assume all operational control and we would also assume all costs for maintenance, the operating expense to the marina and the rebuild. There would be no out-of-pocket expense from the Port at all. We would take on all the spending. And most importantly, the public access would remain unchanged and the Port would maintain ownership of the marina going forward.”
Also presenting was Safe Harbor Marinas, which is based in Dallas, Texas, and claims to be the largest owner/operators of marinas in the world, though they have no properties in the northwest at this time. They too are seeking a 50-year lease to operate the marina and would invest the funds needed for repairs and upgrades.
Commissioners asked spokeswoman Kate Pearson what assurances she would give that her company wouldn’t come in and raise rates on current marina tenants, pricing them out of their slips.
“If we were to double rates, we really destroy a wonderful boating community. It just doesn’t make sense. What instead we’d do is look at things like, okay, for the transient boater who’s not from here…and, how we can sublease a slip? Maybe we charge a little bit more there. You know, we generally just do slip raises by CPI increases, you know year over year, but it doesn’t behoove us and all the community to price out the slips.”
Following the presentations, Doug Larson of Heartland, a Seattle firm representing John Wayne Enterprises, told commissioners that the Wayne family opposes the City of Sequim’s proposal and supports those of the management companies.
Commissioners said they would review the proposals, but refrained from setting a timeline for making a decision.