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A year to the day after a fire devastated Port City Rigging on West Bay Street, the family-owned business welcomed customers and guests Wednesday to a luncheon celebrating the opening of its modern new manufacturing facility on the same site.
“We’ve been in the new building since March, but we felt the one-year anniversary of the fire was an appropriate time to remind everyone that we are back in the same location,” said Chuck Heimes, who took over as Port City’s president with the retirement of his father-in-law Chuck Farrell.
Farrell started the business nearly 35 years ago when he recognized the need for custom industrial rigging on the city’s growing waterfront — rigging designed to lift large, heavy or irregularly shaped breakbulk cargo safely on and off ships.
Today, the company fashions slings from rope wire or fabric to handle everything from hoisting boats to lifting huge power generators off ships. Farrell and Heimes are proud of the fact it has grown to become one of the most trusted rigging and industrial supply companies along the Southeastern Seaboard, well known among the maritime and industrial communities for its solutions-oriented approach.
The fire, which investigators said was caused by an overheated piece of machinery in the nylon shop, resulted in major devastation in the cavernous back shop, with secondary smoke and water damage to the front office, Heimes said.
But it didn’t keep the business closed for long.
“We were down just about a week, the time it took us to reopen temporarily in the old Moe’s Lumber building down the street,” he said.
“We were fortunate to get back up on our feet so quickly,” he said.
“But it sure is nice to be back home.”
