Project Title: Seward - Moving The Home Ports Of The CDQ Fishing Fleets

From Seattle to Alaska

TPS Number: 56209
Priority: 1
Agency: Commerce, Community and Economic Development
Grants to Municipalities (AS 37.05.315)

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Grant Recipient: Seward

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FY2012 State Funding Request: $400,000
Future Funding May Be Requested

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Brief Project Description:
Economic Analysis, Survey, Geotechnical Investigation, Preliminary Engineering, and Permitting to establish the home port for the CDQ
fishing fleets at Seward, Alaska

Funding Plan:

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Total Project Cost: $405,000
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Funding Already Secured: ($5,000)
FY2012 State Funding Request: ($400,000)
Project Deficit: $0
Explanation of Other Funds:
Since 1982, the City of Seward has obtained approximately $35.72 million in Federal or State grants, appropriations, and City bonds to
construct a basin, ship lift, and ship repair facility at the Seward Marine Industrial Center. This funding significantly reduces the cost of
contructing the infrastructure to begin home porting the CDQ fishing fleets in Alaska. The City of Seward also invested $5 thousand this
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year to conduct the initial engineer and economic scoping analysis.

Detailed Project Description and Justification:

After receiving a request from Coastal Villages Region Fund (CVRF is one of six CDQ Groups) to assess the possibility of relocating their
home port from Seattle to Seward, Alaska, the City of Seward obtained the services of PND Engineers, Inc. and Northern Economics to
conduct a scoping analysis. Their analysis provides an estimate of the cost of an Economic Analysis, Survey, Geotechnical Investigation,
Preliminary Engineering, and Permitting to be $400,000. These actions would be completed during the period July 15, 2011 and
September 15, 2011 and establish the basis for bonding or other grants and appropriations to construct the home port infrastructure that
would ultimately meet the needs of all CDQ Groups.

Since 1982, the City of Seward has obtained approximately $35.72 million in Federal or State grants, appropriations, and City bonds to
construct a basin, ship lift, and ship repair facility at the Seward Marine Industrial Center. The Center is within the city limits on the eastern
shore of Resurrection Bay. This infrastructure provides an essential foundation to meet the requirements for home porting the CDQ fishing
fleets is Alaska. If this infrastructure were not available the estimated cost of approximately $33.7 million to provide the infrastructure for
home porting CVRF in Alaska would would be twice that amount.

Moving the home port of the Coastal Villages Region Fund (CVRF) fishing fleet from Seattle to Alaska is a historic opportunity. This is a
longstanding goal of many prominent Alaskans that began with the Magnuson-Stevens Act of 1976 and the Community Development
Quota (CDQ) Program that began in December of 1992. The vision of the recent Senator Ted Stevens and others saw the
Magnuson-Stevens Act of 1976 and subsequent amendments to the Act as opportunities first to Americanize the fishing fleet in Alaska,
secondly to provide fishing quotas to the communities surrounding prime fishing areas, thirdly to reinvest profits to produce jobs and grow
the industry, and finally to Alaskanize the Alaska fishing fleet.

In considering moving the CVRF home port from Seattle to Alaska, the CVRF Board of Directors and staff established the following
essential requirements:

8:48 AM 2/11/2011
-- deep water year-round ice-free port
-- sufficient space and depth of water to construct a half-mile of dock for mooring, loading, and servicing deep draft and other marine
vessels
-- sufficient land upland to construct warehouses and offices
-- existing ship repair and maritime support facilities
-- existing maritime training and licensing facilities
-- road, rail, and air access

In examining ports across Alaska, only the City of Seward on Resurrection Bay met all their requirements. It is a deep water year-round
ice-free port. It has the space on the water and upland to construct the half-mile of dockage to meet current needs, and room to expand in
the future to meet the needs of the remaining 5 CDQ groups. It is the home of AVTEC where maritime crews receive training, licensing,
and recertification of maritime skills. It has a major ship repair facility, Seward Ship’s Dry Dock that has the capability of lifting and
repairing the largest 341 foot CVRF fishing vessel. It has a 250-ton travel lift and upland storage and maintenance space for smaller
vessels at the Seward Marine Industrial Center. It has an existing maritime and fishing industry. It has road, rail, and air access and close
proximity to Anchorage.

Project Timeline:
Project Kick-Off July 15, 2011
Survey Layout September 15, 2011
Geotechnical Report October 31, 2011
Draft Economic Report December 1, 2011
Permits Prepared and Submitted September 15, 2011
Final Economic Report February 1, 2012
Preliminary Engineer Report February 1, 2012

Entity Reponsible for the Ongoing Operation and Maintenance of this Project:
City of Seward

Grant Recipient Contact Information:

Name: Phillip Oates
Address: 410 Adams Street (P.O. Box 167)
Seward, AK 99664
Phone Number: (907)224-4047
Email: poates@cityofseward.net

This project has been through a public review process at the local level and it is a community priority.

8:48 AM 2/11/2011
 Coastal Villages Region Fund
711 H Street, Suite 200  Anchorage, Alaska 99501  Phone 907.278.5151  Fax 907.278.5150

February 7, 2011

The Honorable Willard E. Dunham

P.O. Box 167
Seward, AK 99664

Dear Mayor Dunham,

We have a historic opportunity at hand – moving the home port of the Coastal Villages Region
Fund (CVRF) fishing fleet from Seattle to Alaska. This is a longstanding goal of many
prominent Alaskans that began with the Magnuson-Stevens Act of 1976 and the Community
Development Quota (CDQ) Program that began in December of 1992. The vision of the recent
Senator Ted Stevens and others saw the Magnuson-Stevens Act of 1976 and subsequent
amendments to the Act as opportunities first to Americanize the fishing fleet in Alaska, secondly
to provide fishing quotas to the communities surrounding prime fishing areas, thirdly to reinvest
profits to produce jobs and grow the industry, and finally to Alaskanize the Alaska fishing fleet.

It is conceivable that the move of CRVF to Alaska would encourage the other 5 CDQ Groups to
relocate their home ports to Alaska as well. Please allow me a moment to introduce you to the
CDQ Program. The CDQ program allocates a portion of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Island
harvest amounts to CDQ groups, including pollock, halibut, Pacific cod, crab and bycatch
species. The CDQ program was granted perpetuity status during the 1996 reauthorization of the
Magnuson-Stevens Act.

Our Coastal Villages Region Fund has become the largest of the CDQ groups. We may be the
largest Alaskan owned and Alaska based Seafood Company in Alaska’s 100+ year history of
commercial fisheries. CVRF is owned by 9,400 native Alaskans from the beautiful west coast of
our great state. We are projected to generate about $100 million in seafood sales in 2011. In the
1990s when the Federal government allocated most of the Bering Sea to Seattle and Japanese
companies it gave Coastal Villages 2% of the fish. Over the last decade we have gone from zero
to nearly a quarter of a billion dollar balance sheet. And we have become the largest private-
sector employer in the Kuskokwim Region.

CVRF offers fishing and processing jobs for more than 1,000 of our residents each year. We
offer scholarships and summer jobs to our youth. We have become the largest Alaska based
harvester and processor of seafood in the Bering Sea. Coastal Villages provides hope, fish, and
work.

To provide the regional jobs Coastal Villages owns and operates a fleet of large fishing and
processing vessels in the Bering Sea. With success our Bering Sea fleet has become quite big – it
costs $2 million to fill up the fuel tanks of our fishing fleet one time; we pay the crew more than
$10 million each year; we have more than 250 crew members including skippers who make more
than $300 thousand each year and entry level jobs that pay more than $50 thousand each year;
we spend between $5 million and $10 million each year on maintenance; we spend
approximately $20M annually in Seattle for moorage, vendor support, and maintenance; and we
spend approximately $2M per year to fly crews to and from Alaska and Seattle. This is money
that should be spent in Alaska, not in Seattle.

There are no harbors on the Alaska road system big enough to moor our entire fleet of vehicles.
We need half a mile of dock space to park our vessels; we need 20,000 square feet of warehouse;
we need 5,000 square feet of office space; we need 5 to 10 acres of fenced yard each year for
equipment and staging; we need vendors to repair propellers and vessels, weld and paint, service
electronics, mend fishing gear, repair the 50 diesel engines aboard our vessels, provide
packaging for seafood products, provide fuel, provide Marine safety training, provide groceries
and provisions. In other words we need in Alaska all those things that Seattle vendors have been
providing for the last 50 years for the fishing industry. We need your help to Alaskanize the
Bering Sea fisheries.

Coastal Villages has 100% ownership of 8 deep draft vessels ranging in length from 113 feet to
341 feet and 10 other tenders, longliners, and a tug. In partnership with another CDQ group, the
Norton Sound Economic Development Corporation, we acquired another crab vessel and 5
pollock trawlers just last week. We will continue to buy more of the Seattle based Alaska fishing
vessels in the future because the Federal CDQ Program requires all 6 CDQ Groups to reinvest in
the Bering Sea. It is inevitable that our recently acquired fleet will gravitate north to its owner for
the same reason that many of the vessels still go south to their Seattle owners and for the same
reason that before the Americanization of our fisheries that began in 1976 the vessels used to go
home to cities in Asia.

In considering moving our home port from Seattle to Alaska, our Board of Directors and staff
established a set of criteria that are essential to our success. We identified the following
requirements:

deep water year-round ice-free port

sufficient space and depth of water to construct a half-mile of dock for mooring, loading, and
servicing our deep draft and other vessels
sufficient land upland to construct warehouses and offices
existing ship repair and maritime support facilities
existing maritime training and licensing facilities
road, rail, and air access

In examining ports across Alaska, we concluded that Seward on Resurrection Bay meets all our
requirements. It is a deep water year-round ice-free port. It has the space on the water and upland
to construct the half-mile of dockage to meet our needs, and room to expand in the future to meet
the needs of others that will surely migrate north, including the other 5 CDQ groups. It is the
home of AVTEC where our residents receive training, licensing, and recertification of maritime
skills. It has a major ship repair facility, Seward Ship’s Dry Dock that has the capability of lifting
and repairing our largest 341 foot fishing vessel. It has a 250-ton travel lift and upland storage
and maintenance space for our smaller vessels at the Seward Marine Industrial Center. It has an

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existing maritime and fishing industry. It has road, rail, and air access and close proximity to
Anchorage.

By working together we can accelerate this process of Alaskanizing the part of the Alaskan
fishing fleet active in the Bering Sea. We look forward to working with you to achieve this
historic opportunity.

Quyana,

John O. Mark, President

Coastal Villages Region Fund

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February 9, 2011 111015

Mr. Phillip Oates

City Manager
City of Seward
PO Box 167
Anchorage, Alaska 99664

Subject: SMIC Basin Concept Design and Economics Study

Dear Mr. Oates:

As requested by the City of Seward, PND Engineers, Inc. (PND) has performed a scoping analysis
for a proposed boat harbor located at the Seward Marine Industrial Center (SMIC). The proposed
boat harbor would be developed as a commercial craft facility with the primary tenant being the
CDQ fleet. Vessels would be in the range of 40 feet through 350 feet.

The CDQ fleet is seeking to home port in Alaska, and Seward is ideally situated to support this fleet.
Seward’s infrastructure can provide the necessary support and the SMIC area provides the necessary
real estate for development. By utilizing and improving the existing infrastructure in Seward, the
benefits of the project will include:
 Growth of the overall Alaskan economy
 Provision of more Alaskan jobs
 Protecting Alaskan resources
 Providing a means to further enable the development of the private sector in Alaska
 Keep Alaskan owned vessels in Alaska

Attached Figure 1 depicts conceptual layouts of the proposed facility and represents the initial
configuration for data collection and design. It is likely that the configuration shown will be
modified as the design is developed and the fleet characteristics become better understood. The
facility has also been shown in phases to allow development as demand grows. Phase 1 would
develop the existing SMIC basin into a calm water harbor and maintenance facility. It is believed that
this concept would accommodate 30 vessels or more, depending upon length, with moorage on the
unprotected (north) side of the proposed dock for vessels over 300 feet. Phase 2 is shown north of
the current SMIC basin and could be built as a protected harbor accommodating approximately 60
vessels, depending upon size. Phase 3 would represent a final phase that could be developed if and
when the Phase 2 area became fully utilized. Other potential locations may also serve the needs of
Phase 3 and could also be examined, but the location shown is presented for concept level
consideration.

In order to progress development of this proposed facility, the first step in the process would involve
economic analysis, field data collection and preliminary design. The economic analysis would be
performed to identify economic benefits of the proposed project and to identify the optimum project
scope based upon the economics. Through the economic analysis, the concept in Figure 1 will be

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1506 West 36th Avenue · ANCHORAGE, ALASKA 99503 · Phone 907.561.1011 · Fax 907.563.4220
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February 9. 2011
SMIC Basin Concept Design and Economic Study

modified and tailored to best fit the demand and provide optimum benefits. The estimated cost of
this economic analysis is $85,000.

Parallel with the economic analysis, a field data collection program will be conducted to advance the
engineering design effort. Geotechnical information will be gathered to support cost estimates of
project components and to be used throughout project development. Survey information will also
be gathered to support the project, consisting of bathymetric and uplands data. For the initial project
development, the bathymetric survey is proposed to be performed manually, while uplands data will
be gathered using LIDAR. The LIDAR data is believed to be sufficient for initial design and can be
supplemented with ground survey where more precision is found to be required as the project
advances. LIDAR will provide a more cost effective method of obtaining uplands topographic data
over the large area proposed for the project.

PND has researched available data as a portion of this work scope. A good amount of geotechnical
data has been developed in the vicinity of SMIC and will greatly reduce the required amount of
additional data that would need to be gathered. Survey data, particularly bathymetric data, is limited
however and would need to be gathered in whole to support the proposed project. Geotechnical
work will be performed primarily to support development of Phase 1 only, while survey data will be
gathered over the entire project site to be used throughout development. The estimated cost of the
geotechnical program is $135,000, while the survey data gathering is estimated to require $60,000.

Preliminary engineering design will be performed in conjunction with the economic study and in
support of project permitting. In order to develop the data necessary for permitting, the design will
need to be advanced to a preliminary level. Permitting of the project represents possibly the critical
path as related to overall project construction schedule and would need to commence as soon as
possible to allow the development. It is recommended that engineering and associated permitting
focus only on Phase 1 in order to expedite the initial development. Phase 1 generally lies within the
existing SMIC boundary and, as such, should be a much easier and quicker scope to permit.
However, it may also be desirable to start the permitting process for Phase 2 soon after receiving the
Phase 1 permit in order allow sufficient time for development and receipt of these permits. The
estimated cost for preliminary engineering and development of permitting documents is $120,000 for
Phase 1 only. The estimated cost for permitting does not include the actual permitting effort and it is
anticipated that the permitting documents would be submitted upon full approval of the project.

The total estimated costs for these initial project expenditures are as follows:

Economic Analysis $85,000

Survey $60,000
Geotechnical Investigation $135,000
Phase 1 Preliminary Engineering $110,000
Phase 1 Permitting $10,000
TOTAL $400,000

PND has also developed overall Phase 1 project costs in an effort to assist in future planning. The
total construction, engineering, permitting and management costs are estimated to be $34 million
with detail as provided in the attached estimate. This estimate should be considered relative order of
magnitude (ROM) at this time and will be further developed during the initial efforts.
SMIC Expansion Scoping City of Seward 2/9/2011
SMIC Expansion Scoping PND Project # 111015
ROM PROJECT COST ESTIMATES
PHASE I

Item Description Cost Assumptions

1 Mobilization $ 2,800,000 13% of items 2 thru 7

2 Permeable Wave Barrier $ 9,400,000
3 Float System $ 600,000
4 Repair North Dock & Barge Ramp $ 600,000
5 500' x 60' Dock $ 8,000,000
6 Electrical Upgrades $ 2,000,000
7 Site Improvements $ 1,000,000
8 Engineering and Construction Oversight $ 2,000,000 8% of items 1 thru 7
9 City Project Management $ 2,400,000 10% of items 1 thru 7
10 Contingency $ 4,900,000 20% of items 1 thru 7

Phase I Total $ 33,700,000

Notes:
1. Vessel sizes range from 340 ft to 30 ft.
2. Costs presented represent Phase I only. Future phases are not estimated at this time.
3. Costs are ROM and have not been validated with field data.

111015 Seward SMIC PND Est.xls

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Thank you for contacting us about conducting an economics study to look at the feasibility of
developing a facility to homeport the CDQ fleet in Alaska. We have developed an approach to
quantify the benefits of this movement of vessels from Puget Sound to the state.
Major components of our proposed study include: an evaluation of ports for homeporting the CDQ
fleet, economic benefits accruing to the State of Alaska and appropriate local and regional
governments, fiscal impacts on the state and local governments, benefits and costs to the CDQ
groups, and industries and other infrastructure needed to support a large number of CDQ vessels.
Based on the requirements for a homeport location, we believe Seward is the best candidate for the
proposed facility. Seward is an ice free port and has highway and rail system connections. It is
relatively close to Anchorage and the Ted Stevens International Airport which has direct connections
with major communities in the CDQ region of western Alaska and to Seattle. Three operators provide
scheduled barge freight service to Seward. Seward also has sufficient uplands space, skilled maritime
maintenance workers, and vocational training (through AVTEC) in the community. AVTEC provides
training for all of the licenses that are needed for maritime maintenance and operations.
We anticipate CDQ groups would require a drive-on dock, work areas, warehousing and office space,
and living areas. If located in Seward, the CDQ facility could be located adjacent to the existing
infrastructure in the Seward Marine Industrial Center (SMIC), resulting in higher utilization of the
SMIC facilities and benefiting from existing infrastructure and services located at SMIC. Additional
upland space would be needed for companies providing support service to the vessels. The number
of vessels is uncertain at present, but is expected to grow over time due to the requirement that CDQ
groups invest at least 80 percent of their income into the fishing industry. The potential Alaska ports
should have sufficient land and water areas to accommodate more than one hundred vessels in the
future.
The economic benefits of homeporting the CDQ fleet in Alaska would primarily be driven by
spending on vessel maintenance work and other goods and services in Alaska, rather than in the Puget
Sound region, and the large number of jobs available on the vessels and the support industries. It
would allow Alaska businesses to compete with providers in Seattle and elsewhere in the Puget Sound
region. Annual operations and maintenance expenditures of the larger CDQ vessels can reach
hundreds of thousands of dollars and involve a variety of specialty services. We will use 2010
expenditure data from several CDQ groups to evaluate the amount of money spent by these fleets on
each type of service. This information will be used to extrapolate the needs of the entire CDQ fleet if
it were to homeport in Alaska. Using annual expenditure data, we will evaluate the economic impact
on the state and local governments for the port that best fits the homeport criteria identified by the
CDQ groups using IMPLAN input-output modeling software.
In addition to the economic benefits to the state and region, the state and local governments could
also see increased corporate income taxes, sales taxes, real and personal property taxes, and moorage
revenues as a result of the additional economic activity. Some CDQ groups may prefer to lease
uplands and dock space for longer periods of time and recommendations for a preferential use
agreement will be included as well as potential lease revenues. The cost of providing some public
services could also increase, with the biggest cost perhaps being due to an increased presence of port
and harbor staff at a facility. Our study will look at the tax systems in place in the local government(s)
where the port is located and estimate the fiscal effects of additional revenues and expenses
associated with activity at a new facility.
From the perspective of CDQ groups, homeporting vessels in Alaska could provide substantial cost
and time savings from not having to move the vessels to and from their fishing grounds and the Puget
Sound region. In addition, CDQ groups could save millions in airfare costs by dramatically reducing
travel between Seattle and Alaska for vessel crews and management. Puget Sound’s support industry
benefits from efficiencies of scale, however, so the cost of goods and services at a new facility in
Alaska would likely be higher. The cost premium would shrink as more vessels homeport in Alaska,
though some goods and services will likely only be available in Puget Sound. We will conduct a
benefit-cost analysis from the perspective of the CDQ groups to evaluate their interest in the facility.
At present, many of the services used by CDQ groups in the Puget Sound region are not available in
Alaska or are of insufficient size to serve the number of vessels that could homeport in-state. A fourth
major component of our study will be an industry cluster study that looks at the types of services used
by the fishing industry. Ballard’s waterfront is a good example of the range of services offered in close
proximity to haul out and work facilities. An initial challenge in attracting businesses to serve vessels
will be the seasonality and operational capacity of a facility, since the work done on the CDQ vessels
would occur at limited times during the year, during the off-season. Use of these services by other
fishing vessels may help to alleviate the seasonality, since the shipyard does operate year-round.
Other types of vessels, such as research, nonprofit, or private vessels, may also have an interest in
using or relocating to the facility.
Northern Economics has done a number of studies in Seward that will help to inform its work on this
study. Recently, Northern Economics completed a planning study for future investment in SMIC for
the City of Seward, and was part of the PND Engineers team in developing a TIGER grant application
for SMIC improvements. Northern Economics also conducted some of the original studies for the
SMIC and the synchrolift in the 1980s and early 1990s.
The economic analysis for the CDQ Homeporting study will cost $85,000 to complete. Assuming a
start date in early July 2011, we can submit a draft report on December 1, 2011.