By Mark Edward Nero
The Port of Seattle last week signed a two-year lease with Foss Maritime that gives Foss the right to short-term moorage and vessel operations along 50 acres at the port’s 156-acre Terminal 5, which is currently undergoing renovation.
“I signed a lease on Feb. 9, 2015 effective immediately, that will permit short-term moorage and vessel operations at Terminal 5,” Port of Seattle CEO Ted Fick said in a Feb. 11 letter to stakeholders. “The short-term lease is for normal and accessory cargo activities as permitted.”
The proposed interim cargo use at Terminal 5 will represent no change of use from the activities of the previous tenant, Fick said.
Under the lease, Foss is to pay $550,000 a month, or $13.17 million, over the term of the lease.
After the news of the lease became public, multiple environmental groups publicly expressed their disappointment, saying that more studies needed to be performed before a contract was awarded.
The lease, which includes two one-year extension options, is part of a push by the port to find an interim use for the land and keep revenue coming in.
Cargo operations at the terminal were relocated in July 2014 as part of a modernization program under which stronger piers, deeper berths and other improvements are to be constructed. The terminal’s expected to reopen in 2018.
