Moving from Pulp to Possibilities
Trillium, G-P Will Plan Future of Waterfront Property

by Heidi Henken

 

Two days before spring, snow sifts unseasonably from a chilled sky the color of wet paper. Georgia-Pacific’s 921 Building looks deserted. It’s been the resource center for laid-off workers, but on this day the front entrance is locked. Through the glass of the door, assistance messages for former employees are visible, but there’s no one at the reception desk. No one responds to a knock. On the street, a large, green truck approaches, hesitates at the entrance to the driveway and then, as if thinking better of it, the vehicle’s wheels turn back toward the street and the truck roars on down Cornwall Avenue.

Somewhere beyond, G-P’s tissue mill chugs on, 340 employees turning out necessities of modern life: Angel Soft toilet tissue, Sparkle paper towels, Dixie cups. But it’s only half a community. It was just about a year ago, in March 2001, that G-P laid off some 400 workers and closed its pulp mill. The posters and notices on the inner walls of the 921 Building bear silent testament.

Appearances, however, can be deceiving. Around back, on the building’s bottom level, a door is unlocked and inside lights and heat are on. In a large conference room, G-P’s senior vice president for manufacturing in the west, Theodore Sapoznik, is flanked by the top executives of Trillium Corp.: David Syre, chairman and chief executive officer, and Ted Mischaikov, president and chief operating officer.

Georgia-Pacific West Corp. has teamed up with Trillium to begin discussing the future of the G-P property, some 150 acres, a significant portion of which is Bellingham Bay waterfront. By mid-May, G-P and Trillium expect to hammer out a tentative agreement regarding the roles of the two companies in the planning, management and long-term development of the property — most of which, a year ago, was home to G-P’s now-closed pulp mill and chemical plant.

What this means, says G-P’s Sapoznik, is that basically they’ve agreed to start talking. Beyond that, it’s pretty much just coming up with ideas, a process and then a plan.

While few details were released, Sapoznik emphasizes G-P’s intention to keep the tissue mill open and operational. “It’s very, very important to us to understand that we have 340 people working in that facility,” he states.

Whatever redevelopment happens will have to work around the tissue plant, which occupies a corner of the G-P land, as well as the facility’s warehouse and effluent treatment system, which are on other parts of the property.

 

Environmental issues

Another important consideration is cleanup of the chemically contaminated land. The cleanup and redevelopment of former industrial sites is expertise Trillium brings to the table.

Syre explains that Trillium has micro-managed land cleanup on projects and holdings across the United States and Canada. Some of the largest projects include railroad yards in Vancouver, B.C., the old shipyards in Whatcom County that became Resort Semiahmoo, and which were contaminated with lead and petroleum products from oil and paint, and 180 acres of contaminated riverfront land in Denver that has been successfully redeveloped by Trillium into a thriving multi-use community.

While Trillium and G-P express doubt that the pulping operation land will become a Superfund site, Syre is optimistic that resources for cleanup are out there and Mischaikov agrees. “This project must rank as very competitive against alternative projects,” says Mischaikov, believing it has the potential of becoming a “showcase project.”

Syre points to Trillium’s history of bringing together local and state jurisdictions and prior users to work out a solution. “I think the hallmark of our skill was trying to bring all these together with an overlay of land uses, and come up with a thoughtful plan that worked.”

Sapoznik says it is definite that the G-P pulping operation will never reopen in Bellingham. G-P is currently looking to sell the equipment it doesn’t move to other plants. He also doesn’t rule out the possible demolition of some unused buildings.

G-P and Trillium have already asked for conceptual support for the program from Whatcom County, the City of Bellingham and the Port of Bellingham. They also note the importance of getting state and federal officials behind the project and believe they’ll be able to garner support at these levels as well.

The full planning process should take 12 to 18 months, Syre estimates from prior experience, although there is no definite timetable. In Denver, once the city made a commitment to move from an industrial to a mixed-use redevelopment of the former railyard, “In three years, we were beginning development,” Syre says. “Here, I see strong commitments at all levels. I think in a year to a year and a half you’ll see remarkable progress.”

 

Comparison to Victoria

While the G-P project is already being compared to Denver, when Syre talks about what he envisions, he more often mentions Victoria, B.C. Victoria’s waterfront has some similarities to Bellingham, he says, in that it connects to an urban core and a college. But Bellingham has even more than Victoria, he believes, in its connection to locales such as Chuckanut Bay and Portage and Lummi islands, all of which contribute to the unique character and culture of the community.

When Syre talks about what the G-P property could be, it’s with a kind of quiet passion. He speaks about the importance of giving the G-P site a personality which connects the community in a meaningful way. He speaks about it being a “very intense public and private engagement” and “a higher requirement to do this right.” Even though he’s the owner of a multinational corporation with holdings from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, he’s also the hometown guy. This is, he says, “a chance to create an icon for this community.”

While Trillium faced a financial crisis in 2001 due to cash-flow problems with some of its far-reaching developments, particularly in years of delays in its hardwood logging operation in Tierra del Fuego, the company recently restructured and sold some of its assets. With respect to the company’s position to partner in the G-P project, Syre says, “We certainly have the resources to be responsible leaders and coordinate all the efforts.” No indication has been given of what kind of financial relationship Trillium might develop with G-P, if any.

The Bellingham Whatcom Economic Development Council and the Bellingham/Whatcom Chamber of Commerce are both looking favorably at the teaming of G-P and Trillium.

“I think it’s good that there’s some activity happening with that acreage,” says Fred Sexton, EDC president. “It could have been a decision just to leave it set there for a long time.

“It looks like Georgia-Pacific has taken some initiative to do something with it, and of course, they’re making a good decision to use Trillium Corp., a local development company.”

Mike Brennan, president of the Bellingham/Whatcom Chamber, agrees that Trillium is a good choice, as a corporation that thinks “outside the box” and “reflects the community.”

Brennan has good things to say about what Trillium has done in Denver. “I know that folks in Denver — and we’ve been there a couple of times — they speak very highly of what Trillium did in their community,” he notes.