Daily Sitka Sentinel

Economic Progress Tied to Industrial Park

By TOM HESSE

Sentinel Staff Writer

New interest in the Gary Paxton Industrial Park may be key to economic growth in Sitka, says the executive director of Sitka Economic Development Association. 

Speaking at a Chamber of Commerce luncheon Wednesday, Garry White discussed the state of Sitka’s economy and SEDA’s efforts to encourage growth. A lot of those efforts are currently focused on the city-owned industrial park. The City of Sitka contracts with SEDA for management of the park, and White handles that job too.

He said over $24 million of private money has been invested in the park since the city took it over. 

“There’s a good mantra that you put in public dollars and private dollars will follow, and I think that’s the case here,” White said, adding that about $11 million in government funding also has  gone into improvements at the park. 

Right now, White said, the various operations based in the park employ 43 full-time employees and 380 seasonal employees, with Silver Bay Seafoods accounting for the bulk of that. Silver Bay is expanding its facilities as well as looking at building a marine services center. At the same time, Alaska & Pacific Packing just signed a lease agreement with an option to buy land for a business that specializes in building fish processing equipment. A new water bottling venture called iWater has land arrangements in place, and White said Monarch Tannery, which is expanding from the basement of the administration building, is becoming the biggest tanner of sea otter pelts in Southeast.

Perhaps the biggest news, however, is in bulk water. 

“They want to be up and going by July 1,” White said. 

A company called Alaska Bulk Water has paid over $1.3 million for exclusive rights to export Blue Lake water. Company officials signed their latest contract in 2012 for $1 million. Now they’ve got a prospective buyer in California, and have early designs on a floating pipeline for loading water onto ships. 

“Sounds like a pretty big project, but they’re taking it on in small bites,” White said. 

The buoys to support a floating pipeline are being shipped up from Ketchikan, and White said engineers have been working with city staff to integrate the structure with the existing bulk water pipeline that has been installed at the industrial park. 

“It’s exciting. We could be shipping water,” White said. “Or we could not.” 

As for the existing industry in the park, White said Silver Bay Seafoods is making strides in turning fish waste into a commercial product. 

“For years all the seafood byproduct got dumped into the ocean. Now through innovation we’re keeping that by-product and using it,” White said, calling the innovation a potential source of growth. 

The expansion of the Blue Lake Dam should open up potential for new and expanding industry in the park and in Sitka, White said.