To focus on future goals of Satsop Business Park’s role in creating jobs and strengthening the economy, CEO Tami Garrow recently compiled a list of the amazing growth and accomplishments at the Park in 2010. It really was a banner year! Here are the major milestones:

 

• BMT-Northwest rolled out bigger and more diverse projects from its massive work space in the former turbine building, continuing to make use of its new world-class manufacturing facility and providing jobs for the community. Large projects included a massive 10-unit “mud module” headed for the Alaska oil fields, a 35-foot-high intake structure for Lake Mead (part of the Hoover Dam), and oversized aircraft components for Boeing. 

 

• The Park’s newly renovated barge slip was inaugurated with eight huge tanks loaded and shipped down the Chehalis River in April, opening up new possibilities for fabricator BMT-Northwest and restoring a vital piece of Grays Harbor’s industrial infrastructure to functionality. 

 

• Satsop Business Park provided the perfect site for the Washington State Department of Transportation’s 520 Bridge replacement pontoon project to build a $2.7-million test pontoon, providing valuable engineering and design information for the final project. The mock pontoon was constructed by Quigg Brothers. Project engineers called the Park project a “complete success.”

 

• NewWood Corporation purchased an idled industrial plant at the Park, with plans to turn it into a state-of-the-art “green” company bringing up to 150 new jobs to the region when it manufactures a unique wood/plastic composite utility board. More than 800 people – many with resume in hand – came to an open house in November at the facility.   

 

• Tunnel Vision – That’s what the Northwest Laborers-Employers Training Trust is realizing at the Park. With major tunnel construction and repair projects slated for the Pacific Northwest (think Alaskan Way Viaduct), workers will need training. The first SHAFT (Safety & Hazard Awareness for Tunnels) classes began in October. In the future, organizers will use the Park’s 12-foot diameter underground pipes and other oversized infrastructure to establish a world-class tunnel safety and rescue training center complete with short-term lodging, conference and classroom facilities.

 

• The Sounds of Science can now be heard at Satsop. Inside the former nuclear reactor building, NWAA Labs has established a state-of-the-art acoustical testing lab including the world’s largest acoustical reverberation and transmission loss suite. This unique environment provides a perfect place for the scientific testing of various building materials (everything from ceiling tiles to windows to automobile panels) for sound absorption and sound transmission and conduction properties. Construction of the world’s largest “anechoic chamber” is next. Stay tuned!

 

• The Grays Harbor College/Satsop Business Park’s joint forestry program accomplished its first-ever replanting project, giving students the hands-on experience of managing an FSC-certified forest. The Park adopted the Forest Stewardship Council’s program requirements to guide management of its 1,200 acres of timberlands and partnered with Grays Harbor College to implement the plan. Other Grays Harbor College programs at the Park include the new Industrial Control Systems Technology (ICST) Program and the successful Commercial Driver’s License Training Program, in its fifth year at the Park.

 

• When it needed a new home, Pacific Mountain Workforce Development Council quickly discovered that Satsop Business Park was located in the center of its five-county service area. This vital non-profit organization is responsible for enhancing the economic success of both workers and businesses through finding and distributing workforce training dollars, programs and technologies. Its move gives it a much-needed regional presence. The price was right, too!

 

• Unusual Training – From elaborate “tragic accident” investigation training by the State Dept. of Labor and Industries, to military, fire and public safety training, to the annual “Try a Trade” event, where 600-plus high school students have the chance to operate a jackhammer, a crane, a forklift and a backhoe, Satsop Business Park offered various real-world training opportunities, adding to the list each year.

 

• Food service returned to the Park with the arrival of the Hilltop Café, serving breakfast and lunch to the Park’s hungry workforce. The café is another vital piece of the Park’s “infra-structure” and a sign of the improving economy.

 

• After a decade of being known as the Satsop Development Park, the Board of Directors observed that the Park had “developed” into a world-class business park, and changed its official name to Satsop Business Park, to more clearly reflect its purpose and mission of bringing new jobs and investment to the region.

 

 

 

• Market the Park’s new 50,000-square-foot, seven-acre industrial complex to local businesses, offering a unique opportunity for low-cost, custom space to expand. This manufacturing, warehousing and distribution site is paired with office space, parking, laydown and outside storage.

 

• Assist Grays Harbor Energy with construction of Phase II, a second $350-million, 650-megawatt combined cycle power plant that will double the size of the current plant’s output to 1,300 megawatts – enough power for a million homes. This project will generate hundreds of construction jobs and additional permanent jobs.

 

• Support the NewWood Corporation in its efforts to restart the wood/plastic composite

manufacturing plant, creating much-needed jobs.  

 

• Enhance, support and encourage use of

the Regional Education and Training Center through partnerships with Grays Harbor College, WSU, NewMarket Skills Center, trade groups and the U.S. military.

 

• Continue to make connections between Park businesses and industries throughout

the region for mutual benefit, resulting in

cost savings for area businesses and new customers for Park businesses. This “grow your own” strategy really works.

 

• Grow the Park’s telecommunications business opportunities through attracting additional “Hot Site” and Colocation facilities customers. A growing number of financial services companies, utilities, public agencies and private businesses are discovering the Park’s unique triple-redundant, highly secure, low-cost services.