Review Board Backs Bay Ship Addition

This drawing depicts what a Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding building located behind Bellin Health will look like with a 90-by-58-addition. Submitted.

A 90-by-58-foot addition to a blasting/painting building for Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding received the backing Monday from Sturgeon Bay’s Aesthetic Design and Site Plan Review Board.

The building, which is located at 225 Jefferson St. behind Bellin Health, will have an addition to the south that is approximately 50 feet high, about 8.5 feet lower than the existing building’s height.

Troy Walter, Bay Shipbuilding facilities manager, said the main purpose of the addition is to contain sandblasting in the building for both Department of Defense and commercial work. 

“It should help make a lot cleaner environment there, and allows us to use steel shot versus sand shot [for blasting],” he said. “The steel shot, if you use it out in any inclement weather, it just balls all together and makes it unusable.”

Walter said the building with its addition will be hidden behind Bellin Health and not very noticeable, so aesthetic enhancements such as faux windows at a cost of around $60,000 wouldn’t be necessary.

Jeff Gordon, a structural engineer with A.C.E. Building Service and project manager for the addition, said the addition would be 20 feet off the back of the Bellin clinic and conceal faux windows, which consist of glass placed over metal panels, if they would be required.

“It’s not so much the cost [of faux windows], but again, the fact of the matter is, it will not be seen from the public, probably at least half if not three-quarters of the windows,” he said.

Walter said what it would cost to install faux windows could be spent more wisely by Bay Shipbuilding for  the beautification of 3rd Avenue.

“Focusing on aesthetics there would be a better bang for the buck, if you will,” he said.