CLT Marine proposal: 'Boat people doing boat stuff' on New Bedford State Pier

NEW BEDFORD — Ed Anthes-Washburn is very familiar with the Port of New Bedford.

His background includes 11 years with the New Bedford Port Authority, the last six as port director.

Today, he's the managing director of Coast Line Transfers, or CLT Marine , which is one of the seven firms seeking to become part of the New Bedford State Pier's redevelopment.

CLT is a commercial marine service provider to the expanding offshore wind industry, as well as the marine industry in the Northeast.

Their focus is on crew-transfer vessels, as well as offshore supply vessels, and they provide support to marine services in southern New England.

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Proposing use of existing Buildings 1 and 2

In simple terms, Anthes-Washburn said during a presentation hosted by MassDevelopment in May, "We're boat people who want to do boat stuff on the east face" of State Pier.

MassDevelopment , the state’s development finance agency and land bank, manages the state-owned, 8-acre pier.

A MassDevelopment review committee is evaluating the proposals.

The seven proposals before the committee could be approved together, separately or denied altogether. A decision deadline has not been announced.

CLT, which is operating from the State Pier now, proposes the use of existing Buildings 1 and 2, including about 2.3 acres of pier space in all.

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What does CLT want to do at the New Bedford pier?

They want to continue to develop their relationship with the offshore wind industry while providing a hub for marine industrial activity, as well as rejuvenate the cargo offloading in the facility.

Anthes-Washburn said CLT would be acting as the anchor tenant, "but we do want to operate it as sort of an open terminal."

He added, "We do think that construction support and maintenance can happen here on the east face so we want to continue to develop that version of construction support and operations and maintenance."

Anthes-Washburn said, "We envision using the facility that's there, using the infrastructure and the utilities that are there, and doing very little differently from what you see now."

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'We can work with Seastreak'

He said there is 20,000 square feet on Building 1's first floor they're focused on. The other 5,000 square feet is occupied by Seastreak, he said.

They don't want to push Seastreak out, he said. "We think we can work with Seastreak."

The building's second floor would be used for warehouse space.

They also want to use the cold storage capability in Building 2.

"It's a real asset. There's a big opportunity to continue to provision offshore and fishing vessels" with fresh food through the cold storage capability.

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Will generate direct and indirect jobs

Their proposal will generate about 120 new jobs, he said.

Anthes-Washburn added, "We think it's completely reasonable to expect 270 indirect jobs from our operations over there."

He added, "The activity that is generated on this pier really does trickle down. Whether it's fuel, provisions, the hotels."

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Completed over 2,000 safe transfers to date

They've been very successful in the offshore wind industry's opening chapter.

"We did the first [crew] transfer for the Vineyard Wind project back in November 2022."

They've completed over 2,000 safe transfers to date.

"It's been a lot of fun, and we continue to want to invest in new vessels and new facilities to be able to provide that service in a more comprehensive way," Anthes-Washburn said.

CLT will also perform consulting work

They will also be doing consulting work, "helping developers in the supply chain figure out how offshore wind is going to happen in the U.S."

The company's background provides it with a firsthand knowledge of local port communities throughout the Northeast.

The company also started a joint venture in 2019 with HST Marine, out of the United Kingdom, to build new vessels in the United States.

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HST was purchased by Purus Wind over the course of the last 18 months, he added.

"We're looking forward to building vessels here in the U.S. and hopefully operating them out of New Bedford."

In other words: "Boat people doing boat stuff."

This article originally appeared on Standard-Times: CLT Marine proposal: 'Boat people doing boat stuff' on New Bedford State Pier