Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Tuesday, July 26, 1994                 TAG: 9407260302
SECTION: LOCAL                    PAGE: B1   EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA 
SOURCE: BY LANE DeGREGORY, STAFF WRITER 
DATELINE: WANCHESE                           LENGTH: Medium:   54 lines

SEAFOOD PARK SET TO WELCOME 2 NEW FIRMS

   One boat-construction company is leaving the state's seafood industrial 
park. Another is coming aboard. And a local concrete company signed an option 
to lease a long-vacant lot at the Roanoke Island site during Monday's 
quarterly meeting of the N.C. Seafood Industrial Park Authority.
   ``We had a very productive meeting today, and feel very positive about the 
future of this park,'' said Rodney W. Perry, director of the Wanchese-based 
facility. ``There were no dissenting votes on any issues discussed today.''
   Formed by the state in 1981, the industrial park contains marine- and 
seafood-related industries and has a 15-foot deep harbor. Eleven people - nine
of whom are appointed by the governor - oversee operations of the 38-acre 
facility. Three full-time employees run the park and state funds help finance 
it.
   Bimini Marine moved into the park in November to manufacture 22- to 28-foot
fiberglass sport-fishing boats. On Monday, the park authority allowed that 
company to terminate its lease. Blackwell Boatworks of Manns Harbor will take 
over the 32,000-square-foot space and a 4,000-square-foot building sometime 
this summer, Perry said.
   Another possible new tenant, Coastal Ready Mix Concrete Company of Kill 
Devil Hills, signed a one-year option to lease 103,000 square feet of 
waterfront property at the park. The land formerly had been rented to a 
ship-lift company and, later, to the state's ferry division. It has been 
vacant for more than five years.
   Under the agreement which the park authority approved Monday, Coastal Ready
Mix will pay an undisclosed fee to the state for 12 months - or until the 
company signs a lease. The property's rental fee is 23 cents per square foot.
   ``They want to use the site to bring marine stone and rock aggregate in 
here,'' Perry said. ``They will use the land as a haul-out site for the 
supplies, which will be brought in by barge. They'll probably need a small 
building and a set of truck scales, too.''
   Although the materials would be used for driveway, road and other 
construction work, Perry said Coastal Ready Mix would be a good tenant for the
park because part of its business is marine-related.
   ``The product is mined from underwater. It is formed and shaped 
underwater,'' Perry said. ``And it will be transported by water.
   ``We're here to encourage marine- as well as seafood-related businesses.''
   In other action Monday, the park authority agreed to let member H. Russell 
Langley to draft a letter to N.C. Senate President Pro Tem Marc Basnight, 
D-Dare. Langley plans to ask Basnight to consider the seafood park as a 
possible site for an extension service for the commercial-fishing industry.
   ``If the state creates an extension service for fishing like they have for 
agriculture,'' Perry said, ``we'd like to see that office located here.''