Port endorses Pier 70 preferred master plan, authorizes developer solicitations and policy funding priorities

The Port Commission endorsed the Pier 70 preferred master plan and authorized staff to begin implementation solicitations, including a request for qualifications (RFQ) for the waterfront site and a request for interest (RFI) for Twentieth Street historic buildings.

Kathleen Dyehead, Planning and Development, asked the Commission to: (1) endorse the plan announced earlier in the meeting, (2) direct staff to issue an RFQ seeking qualified development partners for a roughly 20-acre waterfront site with an estimated 2.5 million square feet of potential new development, and (3) issue an RFI to gauge interest in rehabilitating and occupying historic Twentieth Street buildings. Staff also proposed a policy priority sequence for public funds: first to historic-rehabilitation costs, second to parks and open space, and third to infrastructure needs not otherwise fundable.

Dyehead described a phased approach to implementation with separate solicitations to allow multiple partners, an implementation timetable with an RFQ issued in June and evaluations in the fall, and candidate selection the following year. She said planning has involved extensive community outreach over about a decade. Community speakers including Toby Levine and Corinne Woods praised the plan but urged a firm timeline for stabilizing historic buildings, coordination on ship-repair operations and careful consideration of funding assumptions given retail-market risks.

The Commission approved the resolution to move forward with the RFQ and RFI and to adopt the stated funding priorities. Staff said they will return with the RFQ responses and recommended next steps for selecting development partners and refining the sequence of solicitations.