PORT ANGELES — The Port of Port Angeles will break ground on a new building in the industrial park next to William R. Fairchild International Airport on April 19.

Details for the ground-breaking have yet to be worked out, but the event is part of site preparation for the new 25,000-square-foot building for Angeles Composites Technologies Inc., or ACTI, to be completed by the new year.

The port will open up the project for bidding in April and open the bids May 20, said David Hagiwara, director of trade and development, to port commissioners, who met Monday.

The commissioners would award a contract at their May 23 meeting, with construction beginning in late July or early August.

“There are a lot of moving parts, but it is nowhere near as complicated as some projects,” Hagiwara said.

The port has already agreed to lease the building to ACTI.

Current buildings

The metal building will mirror the buildings totalling 75,000 square feet that ACTI already leases.

ACTI expects to add 50 more jobs this year and 300 or more over the course of the next several years.

A second 25,000-square-foot building is planned to be built by the port and leased to ACTI next year.

The company makes composite parts for many companies in the aerospace industry, including Boeing Co., Lockheed Martin Corp. and Bombardier Inc.

The Port of Port Angeles is spending $4 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act bonds.

The bonds will be repaid through rent from ACTI and through the port’s property tax levy.

The city of Port Angeles will spend $540,000 in infrastructure to prepare the site.

A third building is in the planning stages for the future, the port has said. No tenant for that building has been determined.

Airport hangars

In other business Monday, Jerry Nichols, a port tenant who has built several hangars at Fairchild Airport, suggested during a public comment period that the port alter its leases to allow tenants to stay longer than 50 years or to sell the structures they build to a third party at the end of a lease.

Executive Director Jeff Robb said the Federal Aviation Administration does not allow port land to be “encumbered” for longer than 50 years, so at the end of the lease the tenant must remove the buildings or turn them over to the port.

Commissioner Jim McEntire asked that the issue be placed on a future agenda to see if a mutually beneficial agreement could be found.

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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.