Portland mulls options for former BIW site

PORTLAND – City officials are weighing options for use of the former Bath Iron Works ship outfitting facility once Cianbro Corp. completes its two-year oil rig project at the 12-acre site along the eastern waterfront.

While officials hope Cianbro can land a new marine industrial project and remain on site, they are preparing to seek other tenants if the Pittsfield-based contractor is unable to find new work.

Cianbro is nearly finished working on the second of two oil rigs bound for Brazil. The first rig left Portland in February and the second is scheduled to be completed in May.

The arrangement with Cianbro has been fruitful for Portland, which received $1.4 million in pier lease payments and at least $600,000 in renovations to the 135,000-square-foot transit shed that dominates the site.

The City Council’s community development committee is set to meet with Cianbro officials Wednesday to figure out their next move.

“We want to keep things moving onward and upward,” Councilor James Cloutier, head of the community development committee, said Thursday. “Cianbro has been a big plus to the city. We want to show appreciation for that and give them some room to maneuver. But we cannot have that be an idle facility for a long time.”

Peter Vigue, Cianbro’s president and chief executive officer, has been pushing hard for more oil rig work but says the exploration market is flat.

Vigue has been courting Norwegian Cruise Lines to let Cianbro refurbish the SS United States for its new cruise line, NCL American. The $300 million to $400 million project would take 18 to 24 months and employ about 1,500 people, said Jeffrey Monroe, Portland’s director of ports and transportation.

Monroe said the ship project would fit well with the city’s plan to scale back Cianbro’s presence at the site in preparation for the Ocean Gateway international passenger terminal. That city project goes before the planning board in April and construction is expected to start in June.

Ultimately, Monroe said, Ocean Gateway would take over about a third of the site to accommodate the Scotia Prince cruise ship, and Cianbro or some other marine industrial user would occupy another third. The two major tenants would share the remaining space.