The San Francisco Port Commission has executed a new 20-year lease agreement with BAE Systems for maritime ship repair, including a provision that could extend shipyard operations through to 2045.
BAE Systems San Francisco Ship Repair currently leases the Port’s Pier 70 shipyard and two floating drydocks under a 30-year lease, set to expire in December 2017.
The shipyard has made a transition over the past 20 years, since the Bay Area military base closures in the early 1990s, to being competitive in the commercial ship repair markets.
”BAE Systems and the Port have collaborated to expand West Coast dry-docking capabilities, servicing post-Panamax ships, providing emission-free electrical power to the ships, and deepening the shipyard’s channel entrance to accommodate large ships. This agreement fortifies our alliance to sustain this industry for decades to come,” said Monique Moyer, the Port’s Executive Director .
BAE Systems and the Port have also agreed to try to find possible funding opportunities for the replacement of the Port’s post-Panamax Drydock #2, as well as to set up a shared dredging fund between the Port, BAE Systems, and the Army Corps of Engineers, that will deepen the publicly accessible channel at the entrance to the shipyard and lead the way for federal maintenance dredging in the future.