The ports of Vancouver and Camas-Washougal each gave an update on their respective waterfront redevelopment projects at a Tuesday evening event hosted by the Southwest Washington Contractors Association.
Mark Miller, director of planning and development at the Port of Camas-Washougal, discussed the progress on The Waterfront at Parker’s Landing, a 26-acre development intended to revitalize a portion of the port property along the Columbia River.
The port selected RKm Development of Portland to be the lead developer for the project in April. Since then, the port has hosted public events to gather feedback from residents on a series of ideas that will inform future design work.
The goal of the project is a multi-use public space, sort of like The Waterfront Vancouver, but Miller drew a specific contrast to the project’s downriver cousin.
“It’s a little smaller, a little more intimate,” he said.
Residents who reviewed the design ideas emphasized a desire for active pedestrian spaces and places to sit, Miller said. Cafes, bars, brewpubs, a market and a performing arts center were all popular requested uses for the space, he said. Uses such as industrial space were widely rejected.
The port expects to have an approved master plan for the site by the end of the year, Miller said, allowing design work to get underway in the first quarter of 2020.
“We’re looking at probably the end of 2021 before we stick a shovel in the ground, but we’re well underway,” he said.
Mike Bomar, director of economic development at the Port of Vancouver, also took the stage to update audience members on the progress of Terminal 1, the port’s redevelopment project in downtown Vancouver.
He outlined plans to revamp the waterfront amphitheater and replace the former Red Lion Hotel Vancouver at the Quay building with a public market center on a rebuilt pier.
The plan also calls for the four blocks to the north of the hotel to be redeveloped with a hotel and two mixed-use office buildings. Local company Vesta Hospitality broke ground on the hotel project — an AC Hotel by Marriott — earlier this year.
Aside from the hotel, most of the other projects are still several years away. The first round of development will get underway in 2020 and 2021, Bomar said, and will focus on improvements to other parts of the site, such as the amphitheater, the Waterfront Renaissance Trail and the East Portal, a planned stormwater retention and treatment facility on the east side of the site.
