Bellingham port close to waterfront deal with Irish developer Harcourt

02.13.2014

Since 2012, Heartland has served as strategic real estate advisor for the Port of Bellingham’s Waterfront District, a 137-acre former Georgia Pacific pulp mill adjacent to downtown Bellingham. With the Port and City collaborating on regulatory approvals, infrastructure costs, and environmental cleanup, the stage has been set for creation of an entirely extension of the City. Heartland was engaged to develop and implement a market outreach plan to secure private investment into the District, key to helping transform the vision a reality.

Heartland engaged in a two-stage marketing process as a way to solicit the broadest possible response from the market. With a focus on securing a master developer for at least the initial 10.8-acre first phase, we developed an RFI that resulted in responses from eight (8) qualified parties. The feedback provided in the responses was then used to create a more robust RFP, which resulted in nine (9) proposals; four (4) from Master Developers, three (3) from Granary Developers, and two (2) from niche developers. Currently we are assisting the Port in vetting these responses with the goal of selecting a preferred developer in early 2014.

Source: Bellingham Herald