PORT TOWNSEND — Ideas for the now unused corner of Water and Jackson streets, which overlooks the entrance to Point Hudson Marina and neighbors the new Northwest Maritime Center, are being hatched.

Now that the Landfall Restaurant has been shut down, the site could be converted to — perhaps — an open-air market structure that could sell anything from flowers to seafood, Port Executive Director Larry Crockett told about 30 people at Monday’s weekly Port Townsend Chamber of Commerce luncheon at the Elks Lodge during his state-of-the-port address.

He described the concept as a “mini” Pike Place Market.

“Arguably, this could be the most valuable corner in Port Townsend,” Crockett said.

The former Landfall Restaurant was shut down after the owners failed to pay their port lease and state taxes, port officials said.

Ideas for site

So the Port of Port Townsend is asking residents and business owners to come up with ideas as to how the site should be uses.

A stakeholders group is being formed that includes Joe Finnie, owner of the neighboring Swan Hotel; Carole Hasse, owner of the nearby Sail Loft; and Jim Fritz, who frequented the former restaurant as a customer.

Crockett said it could cost a new restaurant owner $100,000 to bring the building up to city codes and another $100,000 in port investment for disabled access and rewiring.

The building, which was originally built in the 1950s for equipment storage and maintenance, still has a dirt floor for a kitchen and relied on a wood stove for heat.

Regardless of the future use, any structure built there would be operated by the port at “break even,” Crockett said, since the port is a nonprofit government agency.

Crockett mentioned that that T’s Restaurant’s location in the former port Army Nurses Quarters building, has proven successful for that eatery.

“We’re getting into a lot of public-private” agreements, Crockett said.

T’s owners invested about $250,000 in the port building’s interior. It is on the opposite side of Point Hudson Marina from the former Landfall Restaurant.

Other port issues

Crockett addressed other issues facing the port in the coming year, including the $5 million-plus replacement of the Boat Haven marina’s A/B Docks, and the replacement of the 70-ton boat haulout, estimated to cost more than $1 million more.

Crockett said the port would save money having the decaying haulout replaced, along with the rotting A/B Docks.

He said the port hopes to begin A/B Docks work next fall after the Wooden Boat Festival in September.

“We would give boat owners a deal on haul-outs during construction,” Crockett said.

The docks would be modernized and made accessible to the disabled, Crockett said, like they were at Point Hudson Marina two years ago.

Crockett also said that the proposed 24-acre light industrial park the port at Jefferson County International Airport would be developed in a environmentally friendly design that would retain runoff water on the property in rain gardens.

It would be attractive not only to “green” businesses but also to other light manufacturers, he said.

The site would be shared with a new fire station on about three acres.

The port purchased the property in 2002 from a nearby land owner and in 2004 added the proposal to its comprehensive plan in a public way for future use.

Crockett said new hangars built in the past year at the airport are already about half full.

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Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.