PORT ANGELES — The Port of Port Angeles’ Composite Recycling Technology Center is getting ready to set off on its own.
Port commissioners Tuesday reviewed a proposed $97,500 economic development services agreement with the soon-to-be-formed nonprofit center, known as the CRTC, that they are expected to approve Sept. 22, a day after an 11 a.m. groundbreaking ceremony.
The ceremony is expected to include participation by Gov. Jay Inslee and U.S. Rep. Derek Kilmer, D-Gig Harbor, whose 6th Congressional District includes Clallam and Jefferson counties.
“It’s not the port’s anymore,” commission President Jim Hallett said in anticipation of approval of the agreement.
“We helped create the climate.”
Articles of incorporation for the center will be filed this week, said Jennifer States, the port’s director of business development.
Composite facility
At the same meeting Tuesday, the commissioners put out to bid a construction project on a building at the port’s composite manufacturing campus at 2220 W. 18th St. that will transform the dirt-floored shell of a building into an estimated $6.5 million facility.
It will house Peninsula College classes and labs and startup space for potential manufacturers that would recycle and process carbon-fiber scrap trimmed from aerospace and other components.
The facility will be the first of its kind in the nation that recycles non-cured carbon-fiber waste that has been “pre-impregnated” with epoxy or glue, States said.
It will create products and rolls of processed scrap that can be used for other products.
The $6.5 million price tag includes $1.5 million already invested in building the structure, which when completed by June will be overseen by the nonprofit CRTC headed by board member Bob Larsen of Port Angeles.
Larsen, the port’s representative on the panel, is a retired employee of Argonne National Laboratory in Lemont, Ill., and founder of the startup OboTech LLC renewable-energy consulting company.
Also on the board are Charlie Brandt of Sequim, the director of marine sciences for Pacific Northwest Laboratory, and Anson Fatland of Seattle, associate vice president for economic development at Washington State University.
Talking points
“We hope that by the CRTC groundbreaking that we have a set of talking points that encapsulates the big picture and where we are going,” Larsen told port commissioners.
“The amount of activity and interest in this thing is really exciting.
“Everyone should feel really comfortable.
“We are on the right path here.”
The port’s three-phase agreement with the CRTC extends through 2017, with the first stage lasting through 2015.
Phase I will include development of a strategic plan, a draft grant application for facility equipment, development of a Phase II action plan for 2016 and negotiating with composite manufacturers for agreements to secure a supply of scrap carbon fiber for 2016 operations.
A Phase III action plan will be developed for 2017.
Create jobs
States, who will devote 25 percent of her time helping the center get off the ground, predicted the facility will create a maximum 111 direct jobs at the facility by 2021 and a total of 340 direct, indirect and induced jobs by 2022.
“Direct” jobs include those at the center and at companies that spin off from it.
“Indirect” jobs are those created by the facility’s expenditure and supply chain.
“Induced” jobs are created by the personal income of workers directly and indirectly employed by the center.
States pegged the annual market growth rate for carbon-fiber composites at 11 percent to 12 percent.
Negotiations with prospective partners for the facility are well underway, States said.
Eleven companies have signed nondisclosure and proprietary information agreements with the port.
Similar pacts will be set up with the CRTC board once the nonprofit is formed.
Twenty-eight companies have submitted letters of support and commitment, while supply-side talks are taking place with three major composite companies.
Two recycling-reclamation technology companies have expressed an interest in moving to Port Angeles.
Seven have said they want to use the facility for manufacturing, product development, training and purchasing the CRTC’s recycled material for their operations.
The infrastructure improvements will be funded with $2 million from the U.S. Department of Commerce Economic Development Administration, $1 million from the state Department of Commerce Clean Energy Fund and a pending $1 million Clallam County Opportunity Fund grant.
The latter grant has been approved by county commissioners, but its issuance has been stalled over a legal dispute with county Treasurer Selinda Barkhuis that is headed to court.
States said the grant, if disbursed in the coming months, can be used to reimburse infrastructure expenditures incurred by the port for developing the CRTC, which will continue to be owned by the port.
________
Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.