Come the end of May, the long-anticipated Northwest Maritime Center might finally be something more than a conceptual drawing.
Two contractors - Sequim-based Primo Construction and Bellevue's S.D. Deacon General Contractors - have bid to build the Northwest Maritime Center's future home, two buildings located at the end of Water Street bordering Hudson Point Marina.
If all goes well, the chosen contractor will break ground before June, Northwest Maritime Center Executive Director Stan Cummings said Tuesday.
"By late May, there should be something visible going on at the site," said Cummings, who took over as NWMC executive director a year ago.
Primo, which also did the county's Castle Hill Annex about a year ago, bid $8,571,873, which includes a 15,841-square-foot Maritime Heritage and Resource Building as well as a 9,521-square-foot Maritime Education Building.
Deacon's bid came in at $8,352,298.
The construction contract goes to the lowest responsive and responsible bidder because part of the maritime center's funding comes from state and federal sources. The NWMC has 60 days from receiving bids to check references and award a bid. After that, the chosen contractor should be mobilized and ready to start work within 30 days.
Steve Oliver, president of the Northwest Maritime Center Board, said he was happy with the bids, which Cummings said came within $100,000 of the maritime center's construction budget.
"I think it's fair to say were pleased within the initial analysis of the numbers. It's very close to our architect's numbers," Oliver said. "It's a big project for Port Townsend and the region, and pretty exciting to be at this point and have some bids we think we can work with."
With bids in hand, the board now has to decide whether to erect both buildings at the same time or build just one while waiting for funding to come through for the second. The NWMC has until April 26 to respond to the bids.
"Between now and then we will need to determine the exact scope of the project," Cummings said. At the minimum, the chosen contractor would begin work on one building in May, although Cummings said his preference would be to build both at the same time.
"You're putting together a puzzle now, trying to make the pieces fit," Cummings said. "At this point, they're both possibilities."
But if it comes down to one now and one later, Cummings said he favors building the Maritime Heritage and Resource Building first. Part of the building's ground floor will house a boathouse for rowers, kayakers and Wooden Boat Foundation program users. The upper floor will be a 150-seat conference facility to be used in collaboration with downtown businesses as well as the Port Townsend Marine Science Center, the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding and other programs or organizations with connections to the water.
The Chandler Maritime Education Building will include a craft demonstration area, discovery lab and wood shop on its ground floor, and classrooms, a mezzanine and pilothouse on the upper level.
The idea for a maritime center facility to provide maritime educational programs and preserve the region's maritime history was conceived in 1998 with the intention of opening in 2004. The date was pushed back four times prior to 2007, the year Cummings came on board.
Although the organization is gearing up for construction, the NWMC, which includes the 31-year-old Wooden Boat Foundation, is still fundraising to meet the project's $12.5 million goal to begin construction. The NWMC has currently raised about $10.2 million.
That includes purchasing the land and cleaning up the dock as well as constructing the buildings.
The NWMC just received a $50,000 pledge from Marine Resources Group/Foss Maritime of Seattle.
About $2.5 million in funding is still in play from various donors, including several from outside the community, leaving the NWMC about $2 million shy of meeting its construction goal for both buildings. To complete both buildings in their entirety, the NWMC will need another $2 million on top of that, Cummings said.
Nevertheless, it's time to put up a building and give the community a taste of what the NWMC will be in the flesh, Cummings added.
"We feel we need to get one on the ground," he said. "We've come this far. We're not going to back out now."
(Contact Blythe Lawrence at blawrence@ptleader.com.)
