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The excitement in Newport, which the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration picked as the new home for its Marine Operations Center-Pacific, has spread to the state’s building community. A pre-proposal meeting last week drew more than 30 firms, including some of Oregon’s biggest builders.

Nearly all of the 65 names on the Port of Newport‘s sign-in sheet came from Oregon or Southwest Washington companies, or those with local offices. The meeting was mandatory for companies planning to submit a proposal to be the construction manager-general contractor on the $38.3 million project.

The project involves building a pier to accommodate six NOAA research ships and a dock for smaller boats. Buildings include an 18,000-square-foot office building, a 25,000 square-foot warehouse and smaller security and hazardous materials buildings. The construction budget is $28 million.

Construction companies including Andersen, Hoffman, Skanska and Turner attended the meeting, along with many smaller and specialty contractors.

The broad range of highly specialized work put the project off limits to some contractors. After attending the meeting, Perlo McCormack Pacific project manager Chris Culbertson said his company probably won’t submit a proposal.

鈥淚t isn’t exactly what would be our standard work,鈥� Culbertson said. 鈥淚t’s mostly the pier work we haven’t done, and there’s some pretty extensive pier work.鈥�

Mannie Mills, project manager with Lease Crutcher Lewis, said he has worked on projects all along the Pacific coast. That, combined with the company’s building expertise, should make for a strong proposal, Mills said.

Port officials emphasized the project’s green side at the meeting, Mills said.

鈥淭he key points they expressed to us were the LEED goals and the sustainable approach to the construction work,鈥� he said. 鈥淥ur strong background in CM-GC projects puts us in a good position for this project, and my experience includes heavy marine work.鈥�

Emerick Construction and Advanced American Construction point to each firm’s area of expertise as a joint venture, the only joint venture planning to submit a proposal.

鈥淭his project has two very unique aspects: the land side and the water side,鈥� said Dale Kuykendall, business development manager with Emerick.

鈥淲e’re very experienced in CM-GC (projects) on the building side,鈥� Kuykendall said. Advanced American brings expertise in marine construction, including dock, piling and concrete work.

Putting the two together 鈥渕akes a lot of sense,鈥� he said.

The project will be paid for with $19.5 million in state lottery bonds, said owner’s representative Joshua Dodson, with the remainder coming from port revenue bonds. Proposals are due Oct. 6.

At the preproposal meeting, port officials’ stressed that the project’s effect will be greater than its dollar value, Kuykendall said. 鈥淚t reminded us of the importance of this project to the Port of Newport and to the community,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd we’re all about those types of projects.鈥�