John Wolfe faces the tasks of leading the port in difficult times and of repairing its reputation after two troubled and expensive expansions failed to live up to their promise. [In response to questions, Wolfe made the following comments:]
We’ve already made a significant investment in infrastructure that’s underutilized, so we can accommodate growth without significant additional investment, today. A second advantage is that our labor force will continue to be a competitive advantage for us. And I think we have an advantage of having made environmental investments at the Port of Tacoma.
There is no question that the port can continue to excel in the container market. We’re unique as one of the few large ports in the United States that continues to handle non-containerized, break-bulk, cargo. One of the other things we would like to do is take advantage of real estate opportunities and industrial real estate development.