ASTORIA (AP) — Port of Astoria leaders haven’t given up hope of attracting the federal government’s Pacific fleet of research vessels, but they’re daunted.

Economic development leaders got organized to lure the Seattle-based fleet and its associated jobs to the Columbia River estuary.

But after receiving the 378-page request for proposals from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and attending a meeting in Seattle, port leaders are feeling under-funded and outmatched.

NOAA wants the proposal in 50 days, and it is expected to cost about $250,000.

To meet the agency’s needs, the Astoria group would have to promise NOAA 24,000 square feet of green-building certified warehouse space on top of office and dock space.

“We are scrambling to address this RFP with really not a lot of resources to do it,” said Port Executive Director Jack Crider. “We want to respond. We definitely want to respond, but we don’t want to embarrass ourselves or our community by submitting a C-grade proposal.”

Crider said the city of Newport is building a terminal with a $15 million general obligation bond that will help pay for the infrastructure NOAA wants, and the Port of Bellingham, Wash., is making a big push as well.

Making Astoria ready could cost $10 million, Crider said, and he compared it to the process the Port went through to build the Bornstein Seafoods fish processing plant.

“We spent $11 million for 100 jobs,” he said. “We’re probably talking about around the same number of jobs here.”

Port Commissioner Floyd Holcom said he had been optimistic about the dock site at Tongue Point, owned by the Government Services Administration.

But he said he was told the agency had looked at all potential federal lands and hadn’t found anything suitable.

“NOAA wants a Cadillac,” he said, “but I’m not sure they have the budget to get it.”