Green Articles
Port of New Orleans seeks state help in funding master plan
By Jen DeGregorio : The Times-Picayune : March 06, 2008
Officials with the Port of New Orleans Thursday called on the state to help pay for its $1 billion master plan, which outlines a slate of ambitious development projects to be completed by 2020.
Port President and CEO Gary P. LaGrange said his agency needs far more than the $25 million Gov. Bobby Jindal promised to dedicate to the expansion of the Napoleon Avenue Container Terminal, the centerpiece of the port's master plan.
"We need to keep up with our competition," LaGrange said at a riverfront news conference, where behind him huge, blue cranes lifted containers on and off of a Panamanian ship piled sky high with cargo.
Jindal asked the Legislature this week to dedicate about $28 million of the state's $1 billion budget surplus to the Port of New Orleans. The bulk of that, or about $25 million, would go to building the second phase of the port's Napoleon Avenue terminal.
But LaGrange said the port needs at least $125 million during the next three years to jumpstart the $237.5 million terminal expansion, which would boost the port's ability to process the massive metal boxes that carry consumer products around the country.
Rep. Austin Badon Jr., D-New Orleans, called Jindal's $25 million pledge for the terminal "a drop in the bucket" and said that he would press the Legislature to dedicate more to the port.
"We have a unique opportunity," he said at the news conference.
The Napoleon Avenue terminal first opened in 2004 at a cost of $100 million. The facility's four cranes can process annually about 360,000 TEUs, a shipping term that expresses the equivalent of a 20-foot long container box. The second phase of terminal would allow the port to handle an additional 195,000 TEUs. An eventual third step, which would cost another $240 million, would boost the terminal's capacity to about 1.34 million TEUs each year.
• Click here to download a PDF showing the phases
Without adding capacity, port officials say New Orleans will not be able to capture an exploding market for worldwide cargo. Shipments of containerized cargo through U.S. seaports are predicted to double by 2020 as manufacturers change the way they ship products such as coffee, that were once moved on pallets or other separate units. The expansion of the Panama Canal, scheduled for 2014, will also open a new route for the largest Asian cargo ships to reach the Gulf of Mexico.
Competing ports in Houston, Miami and Mobile, Ala., among other places, are preparing for the influx of commerce by dedicating huge public sums to improving their cargo facilities. The Port of New Orleans needs a significant investment from the state in order to compete, LaGrange said.
The port is prepared to try some creative methods to supplement the state's contribution. After the Legislature determines how much it will provide, the port plans to ask private investors to partner on developing the container terminal and its other assets. In exchange for cash, equity firms, shipping lines and other interested parties could receive an ownership stake in port facilities or a profit-sharing agreement. The port estimates that its budget will have only about $7.2 million annually to contribute to pay for capital improvement projects during the next decade.
The port's goals for 2020 go far beyond containerized cargo. Short-term projects, to be completed by 2012, include $149 million for various Hurricane Katrina-related repairs, $22.5 million to develop a new cruise terminal and make improvements to existing cruise facilities, $30.5 million to develop a refrigerated cargo facility at Gov. Nicholls Street Wharf and $75 million for a new facility for breakbulk cargo, a term used to describe products shipped on pallets or other separate units.
Long-term goals, to be completed by 2020, include $40 million for a fourth cruise terminal, $60.4 million for various riverfront terminal improvements and $31.3 million for improvements to port facilities along the Industrial Canal, among other projects.
New Orleans City Council President Arnie Fielkow stood beside LaGrange Thursday and hailed the port's plan as "the new economic development" that would help a city that is still recovering from the 2005 storm.
At a meeting Thursday, the City Council passed a resolution to formally support the Napoleon Avenue terminal expansion and other projects the port plans to ask the Legislature to finance this year.
"If we truly want to be the gateway to the Americas, we have that once in a lifetime opportunity right now," Fielkow said at the meeting.
Jen DeGregorio can be reached at jdegregorio@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3495.