Jan. 31, 1994

Alaska Pulp fights for forest contract

By Margaret Bauman

[an error occurred while processing this directive] Alaska Journal of Commerce

Alaska Pulp Corp. officials, fighting to retain a 50-year federal timber contract for a proposed fiberboard plant, are facing a new wave of opposition from Southeast Alaska environmentalists.

A leaflet distributed by the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council in Juneau is urging its membership and other environmentalists to write letters in support of cancellation of the controversial contract.

Pulp mill officials said meanwhile they hoped talks in late January with Michael A. Barton, regional forester for the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Juneau, would result in an agreement to continue the 1957 contract.

Barton said in a letter to the pulp corporation at Sitka Jan. 13 that he planned to proceed with action for contract breach and demanded that Alaska Pulp show cause whey the contract should not be ended.

"The contract changes which APC has indicated it seeks would require amendment of the modifications enacted by the Congress in the Tongass Timber Reform Act," Barton said. "The Forest Service cannot accomplish these changes administratively. The TTRA changes and Forest Service implementation of the changes do not excuse APC from operating a pulp mill," he said.

The corporation meanwhile was using samples of medium density fiberboard produced at a federal Forest Service laboratory in Madison, Wis., to promote its plan to convert the shuttered pulp mill for fiberboard production.

"We've been working with the Forest Service on the fiberboard since shortly after our announced closure in June 1993," said Rollo Pool, spokesman for the pulp corporation.

Jan. 31, 1994

Ship Creek developer seeks bond funding for center

By Rose Ragsdale

Alaska Journal of Commerce

The developer of the Ship Creek Redevelopment Project in downtown Anchorage wants the Alaska Railroad Corp. to issue $55 million in tax-exempt bonds to help finance a theater/museum center in the 100-acre office/tourism/hotel complex.

Mark LoPatin, the project's developer, told the railroad's board at its meeting Jan. 19 that the Northern Discovery Center, one of the three facilities he aims to build near Ship Creek, has been unable to attract conventional financing.

Yet the tourism-oriented center is considered by many state, city and business leaders to be most like the original idea conceived for the Ship Creek project, and it could be financed with bonds sold to businesses, especially the petroleum industry, he said.

LoPatin, who owns Michigan-based LoPatin & Co., said a little-known federal provision that resulted when the railroad was sold to Alaska by the federal government in 1985 gives the Alaska Railroad the authority to sell tax-exempt bonds, provided such a plan has the blessing of the state Legislature.

In addition to the Discovery Center, the developer plans to erect a World Trade Center with a 120-foot aesthetic tower and 10-story twin towers in a 400-room hotel instead of the 45-foot low-rise structures originally proposed.

- Compiled by Ed Bennett.