Port May Lose Dry Dock Facility

PORTLAND-The Port of Portland may get burned as a result of its decision last year to sell the 57-acre Portland Shipyard to longtime user Cascade General for $31 million. Cascade’s financial partner is in receivership and the lender wants assets sold to meet debt obligations, which means the dry dock facility that anchors the shipyard could be sold and moved to another port.

Yesterday, the port commission voted 4-to-1 to waive its rights to block the sale of Dry Dock 4, the largest of three boat repair facilities at the shipyard and at nearly 1,000-feet long the largest floating dry dock in the Western hemisphere. The resolution prevents creditors from foreclosing and selling the dock or the entire shipyard at a reduced price. Three of the commission’s nine members were absent and another abstained because of a conflict of interest.

The Port owned the shipyard from 1953 until last year, when it sold it to Cascade, which had operated the shipyard as its general contractor since 1996. The Port sold $84 million in bonds in 1976 to upgrade the shipyard and build the dry dock. The cash from the sale of the shipyard to Cascade General for $31 million paid off the remaining bonded debt, though Cascade still owes the Port more than $8 million plus interest as part of a deferred payment plan.