The Diamond State Port Corporation is purchasing the Chemours Edge Moor site for $10 million.
After a closed executive session meeting, Diamond State Port Corporation chair and Secretary of State Jeffrey Bullock announced the Edge Moor acquisition Friday.
Bullock said that since the site went up for sale, there’s been pressure to act on it. He also stressed that the acquisition is necessary for the port to survive.
“We are essentially out of space in this existing facility, which is a good thing," Bullock said. "We’ve grown by almost 80% during the course of the Markell administration and we’re busting at the seams. If we’re going to get bigger, we’re not going to be able to do it in our existing footprint.”
But Bullock noted port expansion at the Edge Moor site isn’t guaranteed; more funders need to be identified and more planning is necessary.
Bullock said they’re seeking investors interested in more than sustaining the current port – which is estimated to cost $300 million over the next 20 years – marketing the site as a package deal along with the Edge Moor and Riveredge sites.
Bullock said the Riveredge site’s landowner is very interested in developing it, so the port won’t have to take ownership of it for development to occur.
The Diamond State Port Corporation's board could also ask investors to help with $20 million in necessary repairs to their current facility, also discussed Friday.
Just over $4 million of those approved repairs involve the docks and must be completed before new cranes arrive – doubling the port’s crane count to more quickly move cargo from ships pulling into port, and more quickly meet customer demands.
Kimoko Harris is the Business Agent for the International Longshoremen's Association in Wilmington. He said this is a crucial step with demands from customers – and competition from surrounding states – growing.
"I feel like we're finally on the same team now working towards the same goal," Harris said. "Delaware needs this like we need water. With GM, Chrysler, Avon and a lot of the blue collar manufacturing industries gone, that's had a devastating impact on the middle class in Delaware. This port expansion is going to help bring back the middle class in Delaware."
Edward Zimny is with the New Jersey-based firm Paul F. Richardson Associations, Inc. that helped create a redevelopment plan for the Edge Moor site.
He said a port there keeps Delaware in the game – competing with other new ports in New Jersey and Philadelphia.
While Zimny said there’s still a risk companies like Chiquita could leave Delaware virtually overnight, he hopes to instead lock them in with new port expansion plans.
“The shipping industry is very dynamic," Zimny said. "Of course by virtue of the fact that they can just get up and go on the water, they can get up and go anywhere they’d like. So we know want the competing offerings are about. But we think in terms of supply and demand and some of those options that could be offered, we’re in a pretty good standing.”
The Edge Moor site could more than triple the cargo capacity handled by the port’s current operations. And the proposed Riveredge port expansion site could handle triple the capacity possible at Edge Moor, Zimny said.
Officials say that kind of expansion could spur creation of tens of thousands of jobs if fully realized.
Zimny said the port expansions wouldn’t only help grow imports, but also exports – for some of Delaware’s different agricultural products.
