A decade-long saga is expected to come to an end soon when the
Port of Tillamook Bay’s insurance company pays ISI Oregon Facilities Corp. to settle
a lawsuit over a development deal gone sour.
The Coast River Business Journal reported Sept. 5 that the insurance
company will pay the developer $180,000.
“I’m ultimately very satisfied with the outcome,” port manager
Michele Bradley told the newspaper. “There’s nothing out of the port’s dime. It
won’t be coming out of our checkbook.”
The lawsuit revolved around a proposal to develop an 18-hole
golf course and 250-room resort hotel on port-owned property.
The proposed project, dubbed “The Bunkers” and expected to cost
$65 million to $110 million to build, was conceived to involve 772 acres industrial
land at the port. In 2001, Tillamook County granted a conditional permit for the
project, which would have included a 250-room hotel, convention center, 18-hole
golf course, British pub, 3,500-square foot restaurant with seating for 100 people,
3,000-square foot nightclub, and an equestrian center – as well as a 200-acre tourism
site.
But in November 2009, the port terminated its development agreement
after years of dissension over how the project would be financed, permitting and
other issues.
In January 2012, the two parties agreed to mediation and subsequently
a $180,000 resolution was arrived at. But it wasn’t until earlier this month that
the port completed negotiations to have its insurance company pay ISI Oregon Facilities
Corp. and thereby kill off the development deal for good.
