EVERETT, Wash. — It looks more like an empty ice rink right now, but those in the know see something very different.
"This is opportunity," said Nick Hoekendorf.
Hoekendorf works on the Everett waterfront, as do his longshoremen brothers and before them their father.
Now, that opportunity is being realized.
The new Norton Cargo Terminal at the Port of Everett is now open.
"It's a relief to see it has worked out the way it has," said Hoekendorf, a member of the International Longshore & Warehouse Union Local 32. "Now, this industry can grow."
The terminals add 40 acres of cargo capacity to the port, the fifth largest on the West Coast.
Combined with last year's modernization at the south terminal, another $14 million is coming to the local economy.
The new terminal will help ease supply chain problems and shipping backlogs all along the West Coast.
Construction also removed 250,000 tons of contaminated soil and sediment and added a state of the art
"This is a game changer," said Lisa Lefeber, Port CEO. "It gives us the opportunity to continue to support our economy, continue to support the growing population and do it in a sustainable way."
The announcement comes 11 years after the working waterfront's last mill, Kimberly-Clark closed. The new terminal is part of an evolution nearly a century in the making.
Pulp, paper and saw mills lined the waterfront from the 1920s until Kimberly-Clark's announced closure in 2011.
"It was a really sad day when the mill shut down," Lefeber said. "Over 750 people lost their jobs."
Nearly 1,000 jobs are being created with the new port. The mills are gone but the future is ever-present.
"It's a very proud moment," feber said.
For Hoekendorf, it's a moment he'll pass on to the next generation to work this waterfront.
"This helps me tell my kids that there's still opportunity here in Everett," Hoekendorf said.