Historic Vancouver waterfront project begins

Years of debating and planning came to an end Wednesday when golden
shovels dug into the soil of the biggest development project in
Vancouver’s history.

Elected officials including Sen. Patty Murray, Congressman Brian
Baird and Vancouver Mayor Tim Leavitt broke ground on the $44.6 million
waterfront access project. The infrastructure work will be the first
step in allowing more than $1 billion worth of restaurants, retail,
office and living space to be built on the 32-acre former Boise Cascade
industrial site.

A section of town that was once owned by Esther Short and has housed a
lumber yard and a paper mill will now become 22 city blocks dedicated
to commerce, said Barry Cain, president of Gramor Development. Gramor
has joined with several local investors to form Columbia Waterfront LLC,
the company that will develop the site.

“The city of Vancouver is about to become a waterfront town again,”
he said. “This property will once again become a center of economic
activity.”

Work will begin this fall to realign BNSF rail lines; next spring
crews will bring Esther and Grant streets under the tracks from downtown
and connect water, sewer and utilities. In a development agreement
approved by the city council last year, the work must be substantially
complete by the end of 2011, with full completion by mid-2012.

Cain said private development is set to begin in 2013. Columbia Waterfront LLC is already leasing and selling on the property.

Leavitt called the public-private partnership “unprecedented in the history of Vancouver and Southwest Washington.”

He said the money being put forward by taxpayers will result in a
30-to-1 return from private investment and create 600 jobs in the short
term and more than 20,000 permanent jobs in the future.

“By any measure, that is a sound investment of public dollars,” Leavitt said. “It will forever change the face of Vancouver.”

Last fall, city officials broke down the cost of the $44.6 million
project as $15.5 million in city funds, $8 million from the developers
and $2.5 million from BNSF Railway, with the rest expected to come from
state and federal sources. Federal appropriations in 2009 and 2010 have
totalled just over $5 million, while the state has provided $5.3 million
in grants.

Murray, who is chairwoman of the Senate Transportation Appropriations
Committee, said she’ll keep working to bring more money to the project.

“It’s a shot in the arm for the local economy, and it’s important for all of us today to create thousands of jobs,” she said.

Outgoing Democrat Baird, who is not seeking re-election to his 3rd
Congressional District seat, addressed a group of local high school
student body presidents in his remarks. He called for the students to
realize that when leaders talk about doing things for future
generations, that means them, and Baird criticized those who would put
down ambitious projects like the waterfront.

“People had to come together and have a vision,” Baird said. “It’s
really popular today … to either bash the government — that’s really fun
— or bash people with money — that’s fun too. But projects like this
don’t happen without both.”

Gramor, based in Tualatin, Ore., has a track record of projects in
the area: It is in the process of building the $40 million, 18-acre
Lacamas Crossing at Northeast 192nd Avenue and Southeast First Street,
the future home to the county’s second Costco.

The company also recently secured $60 million in financing to build a
retail center in Beaverton, Ore., which bodes well for downtown
Vancouver’s waterfront, as many developers have struggled to find
funding for their projects. The Beaverton project will house a new Big
Al’s, Cinetopia and New Seasons.

– The Columbian