Next year could be a big one for Terminal One, the downtown waterfront property the Port of Vancouver hopes to develop.
Plans will be laid and agreements drawn up, according to the Port of Vancouver’s goals for 2016.
“This is our effort to take care of the community, to make sure this remains in public ownership,” said port Commissioner Nancy Baker at her last meeting Tuesday before her retirement. “This is our place, it doesn’t belong to somebody else. It belongs to this community.”
The port hopes its 10 acres around the former Red Lion Hotel Vancouver at the Quay west of Interstate 5 will be home to offices, retailers, a hotel and public spaces.
The port on Tuesday agreed to a $100,000 contract extension with Leland Consulting Group to “take the waterfront project to the next level,” port officials said.
That will include sending concept development plans to the city, reaching out to developers and working on parking needs. The work brings the contract to roughly $350,000.
At the same time, work is getting started just downriver at the 32-acre former Boise Cascade site. There, Tualatin, Ore.-based Gramor Development is heading up a $1.3 billion development project with plans for housing, a hotel and retailers. The city of Vancouver recently cleared the way for a park on the land.
The port has been chastised for competing against the adjoining private development, but commissioners firmly charted a path forward by including Terminal One in the port’s updated strategic plan at Tuesday’s meeting.
The Red Lion, now known as the Columbia River Life Sciences Technology Building, became the first big step in the terminal’s redevelopment when Portland biotechnology firm AbSci announced this fall it would be moving into the building, likely starting in February. It will likely be a temporary home as the port moves to demolish the old hotel and replace it with its own mixed-use building.
Port spokeswoman Abbi Russell said there has been “a lot of interest” from other potential tenants at the former Red Lion, but no new leases just yet.
