This story was originally published on LincolnChronicle.org and is used with permission.
Seventeen years ago the Port of Newport won a contentious bidding war that moved the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Pacific fleet operations center from Seattle to Newport.
It was a surprise to everyone. The NOAA fleet and 175 operations staff had been stationed at Lake Union in Seattle for nearly 50 years when Newport – through a widespread community effort and the political muscle of Sen. Ron Wyden – wrestled the 20-year lease away in 2009.
Two years later the Port completed a $38 million pier and operations center that now serves as the homeport for two NOAA research vessels and the maintenance center for the agency’s Pacific fleet of five ships.
Now NOAA is starting the process again, letting jurisdictions know that the lease in Newport expires in 2031 and that it has started to slowly determine whether its fleet and operations should stay in Oregon or if there is a more attractive port anywhere along the West Coast from San Francisco to Puget Sound.
The deadline for letting NOAA know if there is interest is Friday. Naturally, the Port of Newport is.
“They asked if we are interested in extending the lease, and of course we said ‘Yes’,” said Port of Newport executive director Paula Miranda.
But Miranda and NOAA know other ports will express that same interest and get involved in a selection process that could take three to four years.
Even NOAA is downplaying the process so far, saying when leases expire a years-long timeline is routine when and millions of dollars, jobs, logistics, prestige and family decisions are in play.
“NOAA’s lease for the property occupied by the NOAA Marine Operations Center-Pacific ends in 2031,” Keeley Belva, spokeswoman for the agency’s marine and aviation operations said in a statement to the Lincoln Chronicle. “As part of the routine process before a NOAA lease expires, the agency has started to evaluate current and future facility needs of our Pacific ship fleet.”
NOAA already scouted federally-owned properties on the West Coast and nothing fit the agency’s 36 requirements for an operations center and home port.
Now, it is time for state or local governments from northern California, Oregon and Washington to respond to NOAA’s “request for information.” Once NOAA sorts through those, the agency will determine if any meet the long list of criteria needed by the fleet and then issue a more formal request for qualifications.
“This is a routine, multi-year process,” Belva said. “No decisions regarding the facility’s location beyond 2031 have been made.”
Seattle surprise
NOAA and its predecessor agencies have operated a fleet of ships since the 1850s to gather information needed to create nautical charts, locate submerged obstructions and navigation hazards, collect data needed to manage fisheries, or increase understanding of the oceanographic and atmospheric conditions.
In 1963, NOAA established its operational center for its West Coast fleet in the Lake Union area of Seattle. Its two other centers are in Hawaii and Norfolk, Va. Its fleet consists of 15 ships.
In 2009, the Port of Newport beat out Seattle, Bellingham and Port Angeles, Wash. in a bidding process to become the base for two ships and to provide logistical, engineering, electronics, maintenance and administrative support for up to a half dozen ships in the agency’s Pacific fleet that stretches from Alaska to San Diego.
Seattle and Bellingham, with political support from Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., unsuccessfully challenged the U.S. Department of Commerce’s to reverse the decision.
By April 2011 the Port of Newport completed a $38 million pier and operations center on south side of Yaquina Bay adjacent to the Hatfield Marine Science Center. It financed the project with $19.5 million from the Oregon Lottery and $17.8 million from a revenue bond it is paying off from lease proceeds.
NOAA’s now pays the Port nearly $3 million a year on the lease that began on July 1, 2011, and runs until June 30, 2031.
Belva said that NOAA has about 212 employees who are involved in or support the Pacific fleet’s operations, but not all are based in Newport. Scientists and ship operators generally fly in from their homes or offices elsewhere when ships sail on research trips.
Others estimate NOAA’s permanently stationed staff in Newport to be close to 75 people, many stationed for two to three years before rotating elsewhere.
An outside economic impact study for the Economic Development Alliance of Lincoln County and Hatfield Marine Science Center in 2024 concluded that if NOAA moved its operation from Newport it would result in a direct, indirect and related loss of 620 jobs and a a drop of $211 million in annual income and economic activity in Lincoln County.
Getting the pitch ready
Miranda, the Port’s executive director, has been busy pulling together information for her agency’s letter of interest. She’s also aware of NOAA’s four-page list of requirements – everything from specifics on harbor depth, berths for four ships, access to water training facilities, to having a commercial airport nearby.
The Port, city of Newport and economic development interests have tried for years to address the lack of commuter flights into the area, but that is only one item in a list of 36 that NOAA wants information on. The last heavily-subsidized commuter air service left the same year NOAA arrived.
In addition to the Port, the city of Newport, Oregon State University’s Hatfield center and the countywide economic development agency will weigh in after Miranda sends her letter.
“NOAA is a phenomenal partner here,” said Mark Farley, who oversees operations at Hatfield, where OSU scientists and students work with a cluster of other state and federal agencies, including NOAA Fisheries researchers.
Miranda believes a big factor in Newport’s favor will be that facilities are already built and what NOAA is paying in yearly leases should be much cheaper than anything in the San Francisco or Seattle areas. That could especially appeal to a Trump administration cutting budgets for scientific pursuits.
“There is no way you can rent such a space like ours for $3 million,” she said. “It would have to be a ship-ready space, a less costly space … and I don’t think that’s out there.”
Miranda expects competition for the NOAA center once the agency sorts through the formal requests for information. “ … the Washington politicians will be trying to get them back up there,” she said.
But Miranda also understands that it’s a large, important contract and that NOAA has “this obligation to look around.”
“Some people are making a bigger deal of this than it actually is,” she said. “But back in 2011 it was because it involved building an entirely new facility. There were a lot of folks involved in this process. But now they’re here.”
“They’re asking questions …” Miranda said.
In a statement to the Chronicle, Wyden said he’s working with local officials to keep NOAA’s operations center in Newport “right where it belongs.”
“Together, we will make a rock-solid case that the central Oregon coast has proven itself an ideal homeport for NOAA’s Pacific research fleet, support personnel and groundbreaking work on fisheries and oceanic study,” Wyden said.