Aluminum workboat builders Vigor to close Frelard plant

Meghan Walker Ballard

Vigor, an aluminum workboat plant next to the Burke-Gilman Trail in Frelard (469 NW Bowdoin Pl), has announced it will pack up and move to Vancouver in preparation for a 10-year, $1 billion contract with the US Army.

There are 50 employees at the local plant — all will be offered jobs at the new facility in Vancouver, as will 60 employees from the company’s Clackamas, Oregon site. The contract with the army — to build new landing craft — will employ upwards of 400, Vigor said in a press release announcing the move.

The new site is the former home of Christensen Yachts. “While we’ve had operations in Vancouver since 1980, this move represents a substantial increase in the number of Vigor employees who will be living and working here,” Frank Foti, Vigor President and CEO, said. “Our Vigor team looks forward to getting to know the Vancouver community better and being a force for good through our remarkable people and the economic activity associated with our work.”

Vigor’s site in Frelard, formerly the home of Kvichak Marine Industries, has 150 feet of waterfront along the Ship Canal and buildings totaling 50,000 square feet, according to a report in the Seattle Times.

The company will be finishing projects at the current site and expects to phase out of the Frelard location by January 2020. Vigor will be incrementally starting new projects at the Vancouver site in late spring, and will be fully operational by early next year. *

*Correction: An earlier version of this story reported that Vigor would be closing up the Frelard location over the next few months, and that the new location would be operational by mid-year.

Photo courtesy of Vigor

33 thoughts to “Aluminum workboat builders Vigor to close Frelard plant”

  1. Maybe we can replace it with an eco-friendly, non-militaristic, doggy yoga and homeless park and all the high paying jobs that go along with that.

  3. It really is sad to see yet another maritime business leave town. The more of these kinds of businesses that disappear, the harder is for the others to remain. It takes a degree of critical mass to sustain industrial jobs in a community. I am sure we have crossed that threshold already but it is still hard to watch it happen in slow motion year after year. The income range those jobs represent is disappearing within Seattle and it seems there is no believable scenario for how they will ever come back.

    1. But think of the spandex-glad cyclists going to their $100K+/year tech jobs, saving the planet and wondering why the working class has fled the Democrat party.

          1. Read the press release from Vigor. Their move has nothing to do with Seattle’s politics, business climate or real estate market. They are also closing their facility in Clackamas, Oregon. They are closing both and consolidating in Vancouver in order to have a facility with enough space to accommodate the billion-dollar military contract they just got. The new facility will create hundreds of new jobs in Vancouver.

            http://vigor.net/news-press/vigor-selects-vancouver-for-aluminum-fab-facility?fbclid=IwAR2oo7rTyz9S63Ug_qZXE8MbdItqvUf7oyBDrgHuugp1akrIEHa206Mj-Dc

          2. Do you actually think they’d be so stupid as to publicly blame the Seattle City Council?

            Maybe you should talk to some folks at Foss and other Port industries after Mike O’Brien and his kayaking loons tried to kill their work on rigs in Seattle.

          4. Because of Seattle democrats.

            Man, when the face of her opposition is people like you, it’s no wonder Sawant keeps winning.

          5. If you’d like to make a bet on that this year, let me know, I’d be more than happy. I’d also wager that MOB loses, but it looks like he’s not running because of some terrible poll results.

          6. I didn’t say anything about O’Brien, but I would say that my statement to Sawant’s secret admirer, “Roger That”, holds true for O’Brien.

            …but it looks like he’s not running because of some terrible poll results.

            I’ve heard a rumor that he may not run, but nothing official and definitely no reason has been given. Seems like if he wasn’t running, he would have made it official by now.

            Do you have any results from the poll you reference? I’ve not heard of a poll happening regarding District 6. I know he doesn’t poll well with blog comment section sockpuppet trolls, but that’s like one or two people at most.

          7. City council incumbent Mike O’Brien has not said yet whether he plans to run for reelection, although was behind a robopoll testing support for O’Brien as well as two potential candidates, state Rep. Gael Tarleton and Fremont Brewing co-owner Sara Nelson, in December. O’Brien has not released the results of the poll, but the news was reportedly not great; the embattled incumbent has come under heavy fire over the last year from neighborhood activists who disagree with his opposition to homeless encampment removals, his support for density, and his advocacy for the scuttled $275 “head tax” on large businesses, which would have paid for housing and homeless services. All seven of the districted council positions will be on the ballot this year; so far, three of the incumbents—Sally Bagshaw (District 7), Rob Johnson (District 4) and Bruce Harrell (District 2) have announced that they will not seek reelection.

            https://thecisforcrank.com/category/city-council-2/page/2/

            Good riddance.

          8. Also from another article:

            “Mike O’Brien (District 6) has not declared his intent but is reportedly trying to recruit someone he can support to step into the race after some less-than-encouraging poll results.”

  4. We deleted several comments that violated one of our comment rules that forbids repeated inflammatory posts. (Any replies to those comments also disappear when the offending comment is deleted.) Repeated violations will lead us to ban the user.

    2. “one of our comment rules that forbids repeated inflammatory posts”

      Have you noticed that there is a poster here that breaks that rule with every single comment that they make? How on earth have you not banned Uncle Buck yet?

  5. Those lucky employees….just imagine, for the same salary, they will enjoy a lower cost of living in Vancouver and a higher quality of life.

  6. Gee, sounds like a smart business move to me. Eliminating the compliances, taxes and “experts” on councils/panels/committees is sound business and means it can focus on employees and building boats. The real topic here should be what will replace them. Tents? More tiny homes with no parking? Injection sites?

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