Cape Wind seeks lease option for staging, assembly at port in Rhode Island

The developer of a planned wind farm off Cape Cod wants the option to lease land in Rhode Island for a staging and assembly area, the Quonset Development Corp. announced Wednesday.

Cape Wind is looking at a one-year lease option at the Quonset Business Park, with two one-year extensions for about 14 acres at the Port of Davisville in North Kingstown. The development corporation's board is scheduled to take up the lease option during a meeting on Tuesday, and it won't release the financial details until then.

Much of the work for the $2.6 billion, 130-turbine renewable project in Nantucket Sound was planned for a New Bedford, Massachusetts, marine commerce terminal that is currently being built specifically to support the construction and deployment of offshore wind.

But representatives from Cape Wind met with Gov. Lincoln Chafee in 2012 about possibly using Rhode Island ports for some of that work because of uncertainty about when the New Bedford terminal would be completed. The groundbreaking for the terminal was not until May 2013, and the work was estimated to take 18 to 20 months.

Quonset spokesman Ted Kresse said even if the board approves the deal with Cape Wind, it does not mean the project will definitely come to Quonset, just that it has the option. If Cape Wind wants to lease the space, it would have to execute a new agreement, he said.

A spokesman for Cape Wind did not immediately return a phone message seeking comment.