A Three Hour Tour of Port Properties

Port Commissioner Don McDaniel kindly gave me a full tour of Port facilities yesterday.

We started at the East End Mooring Basin, where the sea lions were in full fullness. The Port has recently added a new boat launch just east of the pier, courtesy of some state money. Federal funding and some Port monies are paying for repairs to the breakwater at the end of the pier, with the east side completed. There are only a few more rust-colored metal pilings to be pounded in on the west side, and then pave the roadway. It's a great addition for walkers and fishermen.

We toured the Port-owned land behind Cafe Uniontown and the River Theater, under the bridge, and then took a long look at the increasingly dilapidated Red Lion Inn. The first building, which used to house the hotel's office, is about to be torn down, and just in time from the looks of it. Don said the Port has worked as best it could with the owners of the hotel to encourage them to make improvements, but for whatever reasons the owners aren't interested. Their lease is up in something like ten years so the eyesore may be with us until then.

Then we drove over to the Port itself, first behind the old red building. Its roof is slumping on one side and it's in much worse shape than the developers at first thought. But with time and care it will be magnificent and will house a new restaurant run by Tony and Ann Kirshner, Columbia Chocolates, an ice cream parlor, etc. I think Ryan Davis and Shawn Helligso are the developers, and architect Darren Doss is working with them.

We drove by Bornstein Seafood's almost-finished new plant, where I remembered I had my camera with me. Here are the front and the back, not much to look at now. But Jay Bornstein was the guest speaker at the Rotary Club luncheon on Monday and gave a short, inspiring presentation on the concept of wrapping a mostly-glass interpretive center around the the plant and calling it The Fish Factory, which you enter from a spacious front plaza shaped like a bowl. The Fish Bowl. Inside you can watch crabs disemboweled and shaken and other fishy sorts of things. I'm hoping for Fish Factory Fried Fish Fingers.




Next stop was the new marina building on Pier 1, being constructed by Taggart Construction. The Harbor Master's office, showers and baths for boaters, and I don't know what-all in one of the best pieces of land around.



On the way over to the Port offices there's a good view of part of the dredge spoils that nobody knows what to do with yet and that are the source of much frustration, a fine in the range of $200,000 to $300,000, and sanctions of executive director Peter Gearin.


An old rustbucket, the Pacific Producer, moored along the pier for ages. Anybody know anything about it?



This land will soon be cleared of its junk, to make way for yet more business development. It's leased by River Land LLC; I've forgotten exactly what Don said about it but the Port's website says the company has secured a "wholesale supply company, two service contractors, a fiberglass boat repair business and a custom fabrication shop/steel supplier."





Next stop was the Port offices, where Don dropped off some material and picked up his mail. I met the lovely and kind Esther, who runs the front desk and probably everything else as well. Otherwise the place was empty.


Here's a poorly-framed (by me) schematic of the now defunct Conference Center. It was to be built using urban renewal district monies, which the City of Astoria holds and for some set of complex and possibly personal political reasons has been reluctant to release.


Here's a schematic of development underway at the Port, with the different colors representing different projects. The Port recently received an $800,000+ grant to extend the Riverwalk all along the lower portion of the schematic and along the side (in the olive section on the left), wrapping around to the front. That olive section, by the way, is land that has been built up by accretion, which means it belongs to the State. The State didn't know it existed until the Port told them about it, after which the Port had to lease the land from the State so that it (the Port) could use and/or maintain the land.


Back in the car, we drove down Pier 2, to Da Yang Seafood's sardine processing facility.


Wait a minute: Da Yang Seafoods? Never heard of it. "Nobody pays attention to the Port," Don said. And except for what might loosely be called scandals -- Calpine and dredge spoils -- he's probably right.

This is the backside of the Dae Yang building, where the pier is disintegrating. Nobody's quite sure how best to fix it except with an open checkbook. Meanwhile, the steel plates keep trucks and people from falling through the holes and into the river.

I managed to get one shot of Englund Marine's beautiful new building before the camera conked out for the rest of the tour. The new batteries I brought along didn't help. We stood here for a few minutes and talked to Peter Gearin and his visiting brother, Walt, and watched the old Niemi shack torn down bit by bit, with the old-growth rafters removed from the tin siding so that everything could be recycled.


Afterwards, we drove to Warrenton for a brief look at the Port lands that could be developed across from Costco. Then on to the airport for a look at the new gas pumps and a cup of coffee at the Cafe.

The Port is booming.