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After getting a first look at proposed updates to a strategic development plan, Crescent City Harbor commissioners met Steve Opp, who, according to Harbormaster Tim Petrick, can help the port realize its potential.

Petrick referred to Opp, managing director for Commercial Real Estate Development Enterprises (CREDE), as a “developer matchmaker” and said he’s part of the firm that made “Bandon, Bandon.”

“Basically he’s going to help us fix ourselves enough so developers that actually spend money will be interested in helping us realize the potential we can all see here in this harbor,” Petrick said. “I think I’ve had a few conversations now with Steve where I think he sees what we could be. He sees what we have a lot more so than I think a lot of even people here in the community even see what we have already available to us that we’re not utilizing. I think Steve can see that.”

Opp’s presentation to the Board of Commissioners on Tuesday coincided with an update from Moffatt & Nichol representatives on the various infrastructure projects at the port, including the reconstruction of Citizens Dock.

Opp’s presentation also came after Mike Bahr and Aislene Delane, of Community System Solutions, gave a breakdown of a 10-year-plan that calls for making the port more attractive to visitors, preparing for possible offshore wind energy generation in the region and preserving the local commercial fishing fleet.

Both the strategic plan and the services CREDE can provide to the Harbor District would be paid for through a $1.35 million Harbor Mitigation Grant Program award from CalOES and FEMA.

The HGMP grant was allocated to the Harbor District to fund climate change resiliency studies as well as development studies.

According to its proposal, CREDE would work with the Harbor District to create initial concept designs as well as to conduct feasibility studies for development at the port. This includes taking market demand, zoning regulations, site constraints and financial viability into consideration.

According to CREDE’s proposal, the firm would be billed at cost, not to exceed $30,000.

“We’re doing a masterplan here,” Opp said. “A hotel is the most expensive thing you can build, cold storage is second. It’s all down to how many man hours it takes me to do this and if I put a market on this.”

At Tuesday’s meeting, Board President Harry Adams appointed commissioners Wes White and Rick Shepherd to an ad-hoc committee to discuss CREDE’s proposal with Petrick and Opp. The item is expected to come back before the full Board of Commissioners on Aug. 20.

The updated strategic development plan calls for placing a hotel and convention center on land the Harbor District currently uses for its dredge ponds. The cold storage facility Opp spoke of could possibly take the place of the current Harbor District office, which has lots of issues, Bahr said.

The strategic development plan mentions a boardwalk area, boutique hotel and fishing village-style visitor housing for tourists as well as retail and office space for operations and maintenance providers servicing offshore wind turbines.

Bahr and Delane said there are 34 projects that are potential uses identified within the Harbor District ranging from the hotel and convention center to parking lots. Much of what’s in the draft strategic plan was included in a 10-year Strategic Plan the Harbor District adopted in 2018.

Bahr said the project section isn’t finished and will be ready for the Board of Commissioners’ review at its Aug. 20 meeting.

The completed Strategic Development Plan will also include copies of the Crescent City Harbor Coastal Land Use Plan, as well as the Harbor District’s Municipal Service Review and Sphere of Influence Update, which was adopted in 2015.

The Strategic Development Plan also includes a sea level rise assessment required by Assembly Bill 691, which the Harbor adopted in 2019 and the State Lands Commission approved in December 2022.

“As new development happens in the harbor, they’re going ot be impacted by each of those plans,” Bahr told commissioners.

When developing the projects, Delane and Bahr broke each of them down by how long they would take and what the potential cost to the Harbor District would be. Bahr said they also included revenue projections, though they don’t know exactly what that will be.

“We could make assumptions that certain projects will create more revenue than other projects,” he said. “A high-end motel with a lot of stays is going to create more than a restaurant shack or a truck.”

Bahr also pointed out that apart from the infrastructure projects, which includes Citizens Dock and a seawall replacement project, the port would need to pursue third-party funding for much of the proposed development.

“You have land that has value,” he said. “If people want to have businesses they’ll need to invest in that property to do so. We will keep pursuing grants and allocations, but people make investment in businesses everywhere in America.”

During Opp’s presentation, White pointed out that the Crescent City Harbor District is a mishmash of things. He said he hoped Opp can create a vision for the harbor.

Opp, who said he and his wife stopped and had lunch in the Chart Room on their way to Vancouver, said he’s there to help harbor commissioners and members of the public “take the blinders off.”
One way to do that, Opp said, is to take an idea and test it with developers.

“We’ll say, ‘Hey, we have this project. There’s a hotel right here next to the Harbor, do you guys want to be involved in that? And if so, what would you be willing to do?’’ He told commissioners. “We don’t do a feasibility study. This is not a ‘let’s just put some papers together’ and then charge you for it. I want to talk to people with real money [and] I’ll give you guys feedback. They’ll bring x-amount of dollars to you on a ground lease and x-amount of dollars in tax revenue to the city.”

Petrick said the Board had been asking him to get a development plan on paper. The presentation Bahr and Delane gave, along with the design update from Moffatt & Nichol and CREDE’s pitch work together, he said.

The harbormaster even threw a bit of shade on Crescent City’s expansion of Beachfront Park, saying that the harbor “ought to be and should be the heart of our community.”

“The front street park development is beautiful and amazing, but it’s nothing to bring outside people and outside investment into this community,” Petrick said. “Whereas the Harbor District is in a prime position to do that. This is the beginning of that.”

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