WASHINGTON: The Port of Kalama adopted a $44.4 million budget this week that includes ambitious plans for new industrial buldings, completing the McMenamins hotel and restaurant and building facilities for the proposed methanol refinery at the north port. Next year’s budget is a 52 percent increase over the 2016 budget, which was $29.2 million. The biggest chunk of the 2017 budget is the $32 million the port plans spend on capital projects.. The port expects to finance those project partly out of revenues, which are projtect to total $14.4 million nexst year. But it also expects to sell $30 million in bonds to raise money for the work.
Port Commissioner Randy Sweet said Friday that port may not actually need to sell all $30 million worth of bonds. Some of the spending plans hinge on whether the methanol plant gets all the necessary approvals. The port has to conservatively plan for the large-scale expenses anyways, he said. In the north port area, where Steelscape is located and where the methanol plant would go, the port expects to spend $1 million building a second dock and $2 million on construction a new water well system. This month, port contractors completed construction of two new warehouses on Steelscape property to accommodate the methanol plant. The $4.5 million project was paid for largely with cash reserves, and part of the bonds the port will take out next year will help to pay the port back for those expenses, Sweet said.
The 2017 budget also includes $8 million for new light industrial buildings near the Owens-Illinois glass plant at the mouth of the Kalama River. The buildings will allow the port meet growing interest in its properties from prospective new tenants. Commissioners in September awarded a $588,000 design contract for 120,000 building to Longview-based Collins Architectural Group. “Our buildings are full so we’ve got to put up that new building we’ve actually got people actually knocking on our door,” Sweet said.
Construction of the much-anticipated McMenamins hotel and restaurant will cost the port an estimated $6.8 million next year. (However, the port already has spent money on foundation work, and it has conservatively planned to spend $8.2 million on the project over this year and next.) Once the port completes the shell of the hotel and restaurant, McMenamins will spend an additional $3 million customizing the space. In anticipation of long-term growth, the port also expects to spend $5 million to develop utilities, roads and infrastructure at the future site of Spencer Creek Business Park east of Interstate 5.
Next year, anglers and boating enthusiasts also will notice some big changes to the port’s decades-old marina as the port expects to spend $3.5 million marina renovation project. “It’s not a huge revenue generator, but it’s a very muc- loved marina and it’s time we do something with it,” Sweet said. While the port’s capital budget is set to expand, the operating budget actually will drop slightly from $7 million this year to $6.4 million next year due to lower dredging costs.
