| |
Waterfront Redevelopment Project
Port Acquires Georgia Pacific Property On January 18, 2005, the Port of Bellingham's Board of Commissioners voted unanimously in support of the Port acquiring all of Georgia Pacific's waterfront property including its treatment lagoon. Just two days later, on January 20, the Port received the deed for the property and took ownership of the site. Georgia Pacific continues to operate its tissue mill through a lease with the Port. | 
| The details of this complex transaction and all of the legal agreements are available on this website. Briefly, Georgia Pacific gave the Port of Bellingham its property in exchange for the Port agreeing to conduct specific environmental cleanups on the property and in the Whatcom Waterway.
In addition, Georgia Pacific paid a $5 million for an environmental cost capping insurance policy. This policy helps assure the Port and Georgia Pacific that unanticipated cleanup costs will be covered with insurance.
| 
|
The insurance policy requires that the Port pre-pay half of the anticipated environmental cleanup costs. The Port made one payment of nearly $8 million when the transaction closed on January 20 and will make two additional annual payments of similar amounts. As the actual cleanups begin, this money will be refunded to the Port when bills are submitted. What Happens Next? Acquiring the Georgia Pacific property was just the first step in a long-term environmental restoration and redevelopment of the waterfront property. The Port and the City of Bellingham are in partnership with moving ahead with this project in a historical interlocal agreement. During the next year major decisions will be made about the specific environmental cleanup strategies and about the redevelopment of this key property. There will be many opportunities for community involvement in making these decisions. |  | A new citizen group, the Waterfront Advisory Group was created to help ensure the community vision created by the Waterfront Futures Group stays at the forefront of site decisions. Members for this group were appointed by the Port of Bellingham's Board of Commissioners and the City of Bellingham's Mayor. |  |
How Can I Get More Information? A Port/City website has been created to share information during the planning process. This site includes minutes from Waterfront Advisory Group meetings and planning documents. You can contact the Port with questions and comments about this project by emailing or you can call the Port at 676-2500 and ask to speak with someone involved in the Georgia Pacific project. 2007 News 2006 News Key Documents and Links
|
