Page 33: of Marine News Magazine (January 2011)

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www.marinelink.com MN 33

Quality • On Time • Design Support

Senesco Marine, on Narragansett Bay in RI, has 28 acres for new construction, a 1200’ pier for topside work, and a 4500 ton capacity drydock.

Senesco Marine has a proven track record in: • New Construction • Conversion • Repair 10 MacNaught Street

North Kingston, RI 02852-7414

Tel: 401-295-0373

Mike Foster - Vice President and

General Manager

Email: [email protected]

Tom Johnson – Vice President Business

Development

Email: [email protected]

Tel: (713) 260-9629 • Fax: (713) 260-9602 www.senescomarine.com support transfer of ownership of the yard to AIDA.

Johnson’s proposition was accepted and in 1996 the facil- ities ownership was transferred from DOTPF to AIDA. It was one of the first pieces of real estate that AIDA con- trolled. “One of our motivations for getting the yard over to AIDA was that they understood the nature of econom- ic development projects, for one, and they also had access to finance tools.” Around that time closure of pulp mills in the state caused enormous job loss and economic disas- ter relief money came into the area. Through AIDA, some of that money was invested in ASD to grow its potential as an employer in the area. Specifically, the 1999

Ketchikan Shipyard Development Plan, or “99 Plan,” as

Ward refers to it, was created with these funds.

The 99 Plan: Yard Expansion “At that point the Matanuska-Susitna [Mat-Su]

Borough commissioned Northern Economics and

Kvaerner Masa Marine Inc. to conduct a development plan study for the project,” said Ward. “Kvaerner Masa at that time was one of the leading northern European ship- yards. They brought over their lead shipyard designer, and provided a footprint and introduction to northern

European shipbuilding and repair.”

ASD also called on the expertise of Dr. Larry Gebherdt, who introduced the yard to the notion of concurrent development. “As we went into the 1999 Development

Plan, we realized that there have been many publically funded projects that have failed because of the mentality of build-it-and-they-will-come.” “The principles of concurrent development say it’s not enough just to build infrastructure. In order to mitigate risk to the enterprise, it’s important to also have an eye on the market to create demand as well as looking at the workforce so you can manufacture competitively. Part of concurrent development is to look at the various classes of risk that exist and assign the various risks to the partners that are best able to manage that risk.” “So that’s the approach we’ve taken,” Ward said. “AIDA has been a great partner in that. They’ve stepped up to the plate. They own the real estate and are managing the pub- lic investment in the facility while we focus on the opera- tions of the facility and developing the market.”

Research for the 99 Plan found that in ASD’s region

Left to right: Randy Johnson, President of Alaska Ship &

Drydock, and Doug Ward, Director of Shipyard Development.