Since opening in 2005, Bayview Edison Industries has added five new properties, two new industries and one new name.

CFO Ted Ginsburg said the company prefers to go by Bayview Composites these days, to reflect its new, multi-industrial image.

Bayview originally got its name from the street where the company’s main facility sits at the corner of Highway 20 and Bayview Edison Road.

When Bayview’s original business of boat building started to falter a couple years ago, the company began applying its composite tooling technology toward equipment for wind energy and aerospace industries.

“We weren’t expecting to diversify that much, but we’re getting into all kinds of new things now,” Ginsburg said.

The company has one of the largest five-axis machines in the country at 90 feet long, which it uses to create tooling for a growing number of industries, he said. It also has another five-axis machine measuring 16 feet long.

The machines can cut complicated shapes from virtually any angle, making them ideal for a range of molds and parts, such as engine-turbine blades.

The technology first appeared in Skagit County at Janicki Industries in Sedro-Woolley, which now serves A-list clients such as NASA and Boeing.

Janicki’s five-axis machines are among the largest in the world, with envelopes up to 100 feet long, and used to produce tooling for marine, aerospace and wind energy industries.

Before building a 160,000-square-foot facility last year, Janicki experienced space issues similar to Bayview’s while trying to find a home for its large-scale projects.

Bayview currently operates at six facilities scattered throughout the county, with hopes of consolidating into one large facility someday. The company recently signed leases for two new properties after a desperate search for more space in the county and elsewhere.

“Eventually, we want one space,” Ginsburg said. “What we have now will be adequate for the time being.”

A few weeks ago, Bayview was considering relocating outside the state and had attractive offers from cities in Oregon, Utah and Kansas, Ginsburg said.

But in contrast to the decision made by Boeing a week ago, Bayview has chosen to stay here for now.

“I’ve been here for many years,” said Ginsburg, who’s originally from Europe. “We just like this area.”

Don Wick, executive director of the Economic Development Association of Skagit County, has worked closely with Bayview’s owners to find more properties to lease and to keep the company — and its 70-plus jobs — in the county.

“We’re fortunate Bayview’s decided to create another venture here in the Skagit Valley. They continue to add value to our community through capital investment and job creation,” Wick said.

EDASC is “active and aggressive” about retaining businesses in the county, Wick said.

But while Ginsburg said staying here makes sense for now, that doesn’t mean it always will.

“At this point, (moving is) possible if we can’t get adequate space here or if the costs are too high here,” he said. “We will always look at the possibility of moving someplace else.”

Space needs

Thomas Hsueh, owner of Triton America LLC, which shares ownership with Bayview and is essentially the same company, said finding the space to build one facility instead of being spread throughout the county is still a priority.

Hsueh and Ginsburg were interested in purchasing the former property of Transform LLC, a defunct home manufacturer located near the Port of Skagit.

The pair had shown up at the trustee’s sale ready to buy, but found out they’d need to have the cash in hand to participate in the sale. Hsueh said when he went to negotiate with Horizon Bank the next business day, the property had already been sold to another company.

A sign outside the 116,000-square-foot facility now reads “future home of Alf Christianson Seed Co.”

Triton was in need of space so badly that Hsueh had begun storing company containers at a residence off Rosario Road in Anacortes. The more than 30 multi-colored containers hold airplane parts purchased as assets of Colorado-based Adam Aircraft Industries, which fell into bankruptcy early this year.

The company recently moved the containers — a process that requires cranes and costs about $10,000, Ginsburg said — to the parking lot of its newly leased building at the Port of Skagit.

A few employees were at the port facility last week assembling the fuselage of an Adams A700 aircraft. The turbofan-powered plane was considered an emerging contender in the “very light jets” class before its development was halted.

Ginsburg said the company is redesigning Adams’ two airplane models, the A500 and A700, and will use its 22,000 square feet at the port to build prototypes of the planes.

Adams Aircraft employed 300 people to develop the airplanes before it closed its doors.

Scott Peterson, the port’s director of facilities and operations, said that’s one of the reasons the port staff is excited to have the company as a new tenant.

Triton is leasing two adjacent properties from the port that will be connected by a roll-up door. Peterson said the port will work with the company in the future to find hangar space for the planes as well.

Emerging Industries

After almost a year of negotiations with the city of La Conner, Bayview and the city officially agreed last month on terms for leasing and developing an old cannery site at Pioneer Point Marina.

Construction on a 30,000-square-foot facility will be phased in over the next three years, according to a statement by La Conner Mayor Ramon Hayes.

Ginsburg said the company plans to add dock space and a new building for boat manufacturing and other industrial uses.

Much of the additional space the company needs is to produce tooling for the 40-meter blades used for wind energy. To compete with European companies producing the blades, Hsueh said Bayview will eventually need to produce tooling for 60-meter blades. Hsueh said Bayview recently won a $10 million contract to build 40-meter molds for wind energy blades.

“We beat our competitors in California and locally,” he said. “We have solidly established ourselves as a reliable supplier.”

Wick said between the wind energy productions of Bayview and Janicki Industries, renewable energy is growing as a major business sector in Skagit County.

Bayview also acquired contracts with the U.S. Navy to build the target boats for which they used to make tooling, Hsueh said.

Bayview and Triton currently employ about 70 people at their various locations, with plans to expand to 80 or 90 employees in the next few months.

n Whitney Pipkin can be reached at 360-416-2112 or at .