Friday, October 25, 2019

Port of Everett to Acquire Former Mill Property

By Karen Robes Meeks

This week, commissioners at the Port of Everett moved forward on plans to acquire 77 acres from Kimberly-Clark Corporation for $33 million.

The commission voted to authorize Port CEO Lisa Lefeber to engage with Kimberly-Clark on a Purchase and Sale Agreement, which includes 58 acres previously used as a former mill and 19 acres of tidelands. The port anticipates closing the sale by the end of this year.

The agreement calls for Kimberly-Clark to do upland cleanup work and remove crushed materials using the state of Washington’s Department of Ecology’s approved methods. According to the port, the company will also give the port a $17 million credit “to address environmental impairments in the 12 acres of tidelands in the East Waterway.”

For its part, the port will provide Kimberly-Clark clean fill material to backfill the site after the crushed material is taken away. The work is set to start no later than April 1, 2020 and to be completed by the end of 2020. No current site leases will carry forward with the acquisition.

“I am very pleased the Port and Kimberly-Clark were able to reach a negotiated agreement,” Lefeber said. “Our respective teams did amazing work in a short amount of time to make this very complex land transaction come together. This property is critical to support our working waterfront for decades to come, and we will continue to work expeditiously to restore family wage jobs to the site, enhance trade and ensure compatible land use with Naval Station Everett.”