From The San Francisco Examiner:
The Port of San Francisco may use its own funding to revitalize the aging shipyard in order to entice potential operators, Port Executive Director Elaine Forbes told the San Francisco Examiner on Thursday.
Last year, two former operators of the shipyard, Puglia Engineering, Inc. and BAE Systems, ceased operating the yards and became embroiled in a legal tussle centering on Pier 70’s dilapidated state — and who was responsible for it.
Though previously the Port hoped a new operator would revitalize the yard if rent was made free, Forbes said the need for further funding was revealed in talks with the only shipyard bidder and potential future operator, Vigor Industrial, LLC, a self-described “ship repair powerhouse” with operations in Alaska, Oregon and Washington.
Those talks were warm, Forbes said, but “in conversations with them, we felt it was clear … the Port would need to move forward with some kind of compensation.”
Forbes likened the funding to a “subsidy” in order to bring the shipyard back into operating capacity — and to restore 300 or so union jobs lost when the shipyard shuttered last May.
The shipyard had been in operation under different names since the Gold Rush.