Provides “extension of our Bering Sea operations to Seattle”
Coastal Villages Region Fund, which represents 20 remote Western Alaska communities, announced the purchase this week of a premier property on Lake Union that includes a marina and 16,000 square feet of office space from United States Seafoods. The location is to serve as a base of operations in the Lower 48 for CVRF, according to a press release.
The 6.6 acre property was purchased for $19.7 million, according to King County public records, reported Peggy Parker at Seafoodnews.com. It was first developed in 1963 and was once a home port for NOAA. It has been owned by US Seafoods since 2012. It has been owned by US Seafoods since 2012. The Coastal Villages group has shared offices there since 2015.
United States Seafoods is a leading U.S. company that fishes for pollock, cod and other groundfish in the Bering Sea. The company was started by fishermen and run by fishermen” it says on its website. US Seafoods is now a fully integrated fishing company with six large vessels and a global market base.
In a press release, company president Matt Doherty called the deal “a win-win” and “along time in the making.” He said, “It allows US Seafoods to focus on its core fishing operations and provides a stable home-base for CVRF’s growing fleet.”
The Coastal Villages Region Fund represents 20 remote villages spanning 30,000 miles.
The Native group is one of six Alaska Community Development Quota groups that receives a 10% annual allocation of Bering Sea catch limits of pollock, cod, halibut, sablefish, crab and many other species.
Alaska’s CDQ program was created in 1992 as a way to enhance the economies of one of Alaska’s most impoverished regions by increasing ownership of the fishery resources off its shores. Today, the six CDQ groups represent 65 communities which are located within 50 miles of the Bering Sea coast.
In a press release, Anchorage-based Coastal Villages said the Seattle property acquisition demonstrates its expanding role in the Bering Sea fisheries. The CDQ group owns six fishing vessels. The largest is the Northern Hawk, a 341-foot trawler that harvests and processes pollock.
All of the CVRF vessels are homeported in Seattle.
CEO Eric Deakin said CVRF takes great pride in seeing its “100% Alaska-owned fleet” take off from the new Lake Union location “as they head to Alaskan waters, knowing that their harvest feeds the world and in turn funds critical programs across all 20 of our member communities.”
CVRF last year purchased the 341-foot Northern Hawk to catch and process Alaska pollock
