The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has its eye on a 3-acre gravel lot near Marine Park in Vancouver as a home office for 10 full-time employees coordinating major corps construction projects in Oregon and Southwest Washington.
The city-owned lot, at 4400 S.E. Columbia Way, would accommodate a pair of modular office buildings.
The buildings are currently at the Port of Kalama.
Since wrapping up the $190 million Columbia River channel-deepening project last year, corps officials had been searching for a more central location for managing heavy construction and dredging projects. The office handles an annual workload of $25 million to $50 million in construction projects.
Current projects include work at the sediment retention dam near Mount St. Helens, jetty and harbor maintenance along the Oregon and Washington coast, and upgrades to corps-owned dams in the Columbia River Gorge.
Corps officials scouted locations in Vancouver between Interstate 5 and Wintler Park.
“In working with the city, they offered up this property as potentially available for lease,” said Karen Garmire, assistant chief of the construction branch for the corps’ Portland district.
She said many corps employees already live in Vancouver, and the site near Marine Park offers central access to Mount St. Helens, the coast and the district headquarters office in downtown Portland.
“We like that location,” Garmire said.
No final decision has been made, and the corps is only now meeting with city officials to work out details of site requirements. The corps would pay an annual lease to the city for as long as five years, according to a land-use application filed with the city this week.
Garmire said the fee has not yet been negotiated. Loretta Callahan, spokeswoman for the city’s Public Works Department, had no other details Friday.
The property is east of Christensen Shipyard’s boat-building facility, and has been used by Christensen for surface storage in the past. The two modular office units, which include about 2,300 square feet of space, would be moved from Kalama.
“It’s the most cost-effective option for us,” Garmire said. “One’s a year old, and the other is about 3 years old.”
Erik Robinson: 360-735-4551 or erik.robinson@columbian.com.
