Former Kimberly-Clark Mill Site/Kimberly-Clark PSI Site (Everett, Washington)

USA / Washington / Everett / Everett, Washington
 abandoned / shut down, paper mill, construction site
Established in 1930 as a paper mill for the Puget Sound Pulp and Timber Company and quickly becoming one of the largest paper mills in the world, the expansive mill facility located along West Marine View Drive became a major employer for the City of Everett and was soon joined by several other mills along the rapidly growing city's waterfront. Operated by Puget Sound Pulp and Timber until the Great Depression forced its sale to the Soundview Paper Company in the early 1930's, the mill was operated by Soundview into the 1950's before being taken over by the Scott Paper Corporation.

Remaining under the ownership of Scott Paper for the next forty years, the mill became part of the large conglomerate Kimberly-Clark in the early 1990's and underwent an extensive modernization program which completed in 1995 and allowed the plant to resume full time operations. Foreign competition and the dwindling availability of cheap forest products began to eat into the mills profitability as the 1990's gave way to the 2000's, and despite efforts to streamline operations at the mill and a last-minute deal to sell the facility to another operator, Kimberly-Clark elected to idle the facility in December of 2011 and laid off its 700+ employees the following April.

Efforts by the City of Everett to find another buyer/operator for the property were significantly impacted by the toxic legacy of the mill's 80 years of operations in the waterways surrounding it, which required extensive environmental remediation before any new buyer could begin operations at the site. With few buyers interested in taking on the considerable cost, the decision was made to raze the mill in late 2012 as part of an environmental cleanup of the site, as part of the State of Washington's Puget Sound Initiative (PSI) program which completed structural demolition in the Summer of 2013.

Originally planned to be reused as a shipyard site for Foss Maritime Co, the land is now owned by the City of Everett.

fortress.wa.gov/ecy/gsp/Sitepage.aspx?csid=2569
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   47°59'6"N   122°13'1"W

Comments

  • Site has been demolished. Land sold to Foss Maritime which is planning new shipyard
  • Land purchase fell through in April 2014. No Plan B. Wouldn't it be cool if that property could be the second park that I keep reading about in the proposed waterfront developmnt plan that I can't find in the Plan? We kitefliers and other open-space park users could really bring life to that property with events...providing NO trees are planted and no interior walkways are put in (okay around the perimeter), and NO internal water features. Give us something like the Chambers Bay Meadows were the Parks Dept and Pierce County Kitefliers Association do a mutual public event every year.
This article was last modified 10 years ago