Electric boat company may lease port’s long vacant building

The Port of Bremerton announced Tuesday that General Dynamics Electric Boat is expected to lease part of a building in its Olympic View Business Park than has been vacant for more than a year.

Now referred to as the Olympic View Business Park building No. 1, it was previously called the Salo building, and its vacant status was a strong source of frustration for Commissioner Larry Stokes.

Stokes announced frequently that leasing the building, which was costing the port $250,000 a year as it remained empty, should be a top priority for port staff.

The lease currently negotiated is with Electric Boat, who is expected to lease about 9,000 square-feet of the building beginning in January of 2010. The lease will extend for eight years, which the port said is the time remaining on its current lease with the Tracy Family Trust.

The port said Electric Boat is headquartered in Groton, Conn., and is known for its construction of the Virginia Class submarine, and as the prime contractor for conversion of Trident SSBNs to SSGN submarines at Bremerton’s Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and at Virginia’s Norfolk Naval Shipyard.

The company’s workers have been involved in Navy projects in the Puget Sound area since 2003.

The lease is subject to approval by the port’s board of commissioners, who are meeting tonight at 6 p.m. in the Norm Dicks Government Building.

The port will also be asked to approve negotiated improvements to the building, which have been designed by Rice Fergus Miller Architects

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