Gig Harbor’s commercial fishing fleet is marking 150 years on the water just as a long-awaited project aimed at preserving its working waterfront moves closer to construction.
The Gig Harbor City Council voted Aug. 10 to accept a $3.6 million bid from Redside Construction to build the city’s Commercial Fishing Homeport at Ancich Park, according to Gig Harbor Now. The decision marks a major step for a project the city has been pursuing since 2012.
The milestone comes just ahead of “Fishermen Feed the World,” an Aug. 22 community celebration honoring 150 years of Gig Harbor’s commercial fishing fleet and the industry’s continued presence in the community.
The homeport project has faced years of delays, including environmental permitting challenges that required the city to revise its plans several times. A hearing examiner approved a necessary shoreline permit in June, clearing the way for the city to solicit construction bids.
Five contractors submitted bids, with Bainbridge Island-based Redside Construction offering the lowest at slightly more than $3.6 million. The price came below a previous city estimate that construction bids could reach $4.2 million.
Redside previously worked with the city to construct Gig Harbor’s Maritime Pier, which was completed in 2012.
A pre-construction meeting is scheduled for Aug. 24. While an exact construction schedule has not yet been finalized, city officials told Gig Harbor Now they expect work on site to begin in late fall or early winter 2026.
Project advocates Guy Hoppen, Gregg Lovrovich and Erin Babich called the council vote a milestone in the project’s 14-year history. “We look forward to catching the lines of the first fishing vessel to tie up at Gig Harbor’s Commercial Fishing Homeport,” they said in a statement.
Celebrating a fleet still fishing
As Gig Harbor prepares for the future of its working waterfront, the community is also looking back at the generations of fishermen who built it.
The Skansie Netshed Foundation will host “Fishermen Feed the World” from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Aug. 22 at Skansie Brothers Park. The event will celebrate more than 150 years of commercial fishing in Gig Harbor with fishing displays, net-mending demonstrations and opportunities to meet current and former fishermen.
“The fishing industry has played an important role in the history of forming Gig Harbor,” Skansie Netshed Foundation president Jim Franich told Gig Harbor Now. “We just want to make the public aware that there still is a commercial fishing industry still existing right now.”
The celebration will also feature the Veteran, a purse seiner launched by Gig Harbor’s Skansie Shipbuilding in 1926. The historic vessel will tie up at the Skansie Park dock during the event.
But many of the boats and fishermen representing Gig Harbor’s modern fleet won’t be there.
Much of the fleet remains in Alaska for the fishing season, a reminder that Gig Harbor’s commercial fishing heritage is more than history.
“Our fishermen are still out feeding the world,” Babich said. “That’s the life of a fisherman. You never know when they’re coming or going.”
The timing brings Gig Harbor’s fishing past and future together. After generations of local fishermen working waters from Puget Sound to Alaska, the new Commercial Fishing Homeport is intended to provide a dedicated place for that working fleet in the harbor.
After 14 years of planning and permitting, construction could begin this winter, even as the community celebrates an industry that has shaped Gig Harbor for a century and a half.
