
A collaborative partnership between the City of Anacortes and the Port of Anacortes to provide a permanent event space for large tourist-oriented and community-based events that can host events long into the future and takes advantage of Anacortes’s distinct characteristics.
The permanent event space is envisioned to be suitable for:
In March 2024, the Port and City signed an Interlocal Cooperative Agreement to determine the rough magnitude of cost analysis to deliver a space within the Port of Anacortes West Basin Master Site Plan that would meet the established event center criteria. Within this process, both entities are working collaboratively through a committee process to determine the conceptual design of the event center and the arrangements required to bring this event center to a reality for our community.
The purpose of this conceptual design phase agreement is to analyze building programming, propose floor plan solutions that integrate provided criteria, generate overall site plans and diagrams for the use of the adjacent park that will support outdoor event “spill out.”
All of this work will be done with consideration for integrating the proposed event center facility into the Port’s existing West Basin Plan. The concept will bring in precedent images to help define the character of the building and adjacent park area, as well as civil work required for utility connections and other elements of the building and park.
Rough order of magnitude (ROM) costs for the selected building concept, adjacent park area, and civil elements will be produced as part of this conceptual phase of work.
The goal for the event center design is to meet the following criteria:
Plans for redevelopment of the North and West Cap Sante Basin uplands were developed with community involvement in the 2008 Port Comprehensive Plan.
The original redevelopment plan was refined in the North and West Basin Concept Plan that was developed through a series of community workshops in 2013 and 2014 that included City staff, Port staff and community members:
Event Center Advisory Group
North and West Basin Redevelopment Advisory Group
Yes, the project is envisioned as a joint City-Port project, and the current thinking is that the Port will provide waterfront property, and the City will fund construction. Representatives from the Port and City are meeting frequently to keep the project moving in its current phase, which is conceptual design.
Initial cost estimates for building the event center are what we are working on together now. As the land is already owned by the Port, the costs will be planning, design and construction of the building and associated property.
The current plan is to fund design and construction of the building through City Lodging Tax funding. The City of Anacortes collects a 4% tax on the furnishing of lodging—by hotels, motels, short-term rentals, and other transient lodging. The City’s goals for the use of lodging tax funds is to attract visitors to Anacortes, both for overnight stays and day trips. Tourist visits to our shopping, restaurants, art galleries and other activities help ensure the economic vitality of these enterprises and the liveliness of Anacortes. The event center meets these goals.
We’ve heard concerns from marina users and other Anacortes residents about the lack of parking around Cap Sante Marina and downtown.
As part of the design phase of the project, the port is developing strategies to manage parking around Cap Sante Marina, which will help make parking more efficient and predictable, and better serve marina users and others visiting downtown. Although still in development, parking management will likely include time restrictions and require passes for those wanting to use spaces for long-term parking.
The final design for the redevelopment project will provide sufficient parking to meet the needs of marina boaters, commercial businesses and other waterfront users.
The overall West Basin project includes improvements to the waterfront esplanade and extension of the Tommy Thompson trail.
No. The Port already owns the land and the preliminary funding strategy for the building design and construction is to use Lodging Tax and grant funds.
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