PORT TOWNSEND – After more than a year of delays, the Northwest Maritime Center and Wooden Boat Foundation has committed to request bids on one of two maritime heritage center buildings planned at the Hudson Point end of Water Street.
With the project’s capital fund-raising campaign burdened by skyrocketing construction costs, Maritime Center Executive Director Stan Cummings said the time is right to move ahead on the larger of the two planned buildings.
With construction drawings now complete, final documents are being prepared to go to bid Jan. 28.
“For awhile there, it was going up faster than we could raise money,” said Cummings, who has been director for nearly a year.
“Now, we are coming into the best bidding season.”
Cummings said he believes that once donors see progress, they might want to contribute to the project once again.
“We’re looking at both buildings being at $17.5 million,” Cummings said recently.
“There are many people in town, many of them existing donors, who put their money down and nothing happened,” Cummings said, adding that when he joined the organization he promised he would not ask for money until the Maritime Center could show actual progress.
Since a ground-breaking date has been announced several times before, Cummings reserved comment on a date until he is certain of it.
