Rayonier drops negotiations with HarborWorks on former mill property
July 26th, 2010 - 5:49am
(Port Angeles) -- Plans for the Port Angeles HarborWorks Public Development Authority to take over the former Rayonier mill property may have unravelled before any offer was made.
Rayonier says it's not interested in selling the property to Harborworks.
The news came in a letter last week from the company.
In the letter, Rayonier vice president and general counsel Michael Herman says the company is concerned HarborWorks continued to talk to other stakeholders about the property after Rayonier felt it was premature to sell it to Harborworks.
Herman's letter calls plans for HarborWorks to take over the property "commercially unattractive and not one that any rational landowner would accept." Specifically, Herman claims if Rayonier ceded decision making authority over the site to HarborWorks, it would lose control over clean up decisions. The company believes that would leave Rayonier with no say on what the final costs may be for remedial actions.
But the letter's timing has many civic leaders scratching their heads, as HarborWorks hasn't yet decided to even pursue purchasing the property. That decision was due in August. HarborWorks hasn't made a formal proposal to Rayonier for the property, although both sides have been in negotiations.
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