The Toledo Blade Online
The Toledo Blade OnlineThe Toledo Blade Green Edition
Click here to subscribe or renew!
Temp: 51°
Humidity: 73%
Sunday, 11/22/09
Home »   Latest News »   Transportation » 


Click to Receive RSS Feeds!EmailPrint IndexHelp FacebookMySpaceDiggDel.icio.usFark

Article published May 20, 2008
Hartung: Refinery site will spur jobs
Port authority buys 181 acres to develop

On land where 2,000 Gulf Oil refinery workers once toiled, the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority envisions hundreds of jobs, if not thousands, in an expanded Port of Toledo and other transportation-related businesses.

That was the vision to which James Hartung, the port authority's president, and other dignitaries pointed during a news conference yesterday as they announced the agency's $3.4 million purchase of 181 acres on the former refinery site from Chevron Corp.

"We will make this property grow and support maritime transportation-dependent developments in the future," Mr. Hartung said. "This property's now ready to begin a new life as a contributor to our local economy, to our regional economy and, hopefully, to our national economy."

By buying the refinery property, the port authority now controls the largest land mass of any Great Lakes port.

"There are not many places in the Great Lakes where you have a field like this with access" to vital transportation facilities, said Alex Johnson, president of Midwest Terminals of Toledo, the terminal operator to which the port authority will lease the site long-term for management and development.

Along with ship, rail, and road access, Mr. Johnson listed pipelines among those vital facilities, as several long-distance pipelines reach onto the former Gulf site.

"It's a key piece to the intermodal [capability] we need to look at," Mr. Johnson said.

The port authority financed the purchase with most of a bond issue of up to $4.75 million. Midwest Terminals will become responsible for lease payments equal to the monthly bond service plus annual increases tied to the Consumer Price Index, or 6 percent of its revenue derived from the property, whichever is greater.

Toledo's potential power as an intermodal distribution and logistics hub - intermodal meaning the capability to ship using, or transfer freight between, varying modes of transportation - was the subject of a two-day Blade report Sunday and yesterday.

The Port of Toledo's potential as an interface between ships, trucks, and trains was highlighted, particularly in light of proposed "short-sea shipping" of containerized freight between a new port on the Nova Scotia coast and Great Lakes ports like Toledo.

Mr. Hartung said the exact job count that could develop on the former refinery site is "a moving target" depending on what mix of businesses locate there, but it could be "easily within the hundreds, maybe more than 1,000.

"We would love to be able to replicate the 2,000 that used to be here" before Gulf closed the refinery, he said.

"That's what we want to see here again," said Mike Craig, a city councilman whose district includes East Toledo. He praised the port expansion idea as a step to "revitalize the core of the city."

Preparatory work to ready the site for development, including dock-face rehabilitation, river dredging to provide adequate depth for ships, paving, and restoration of rail access, "will take around a year," Mr. Johnson said.

Toledo Mayor Carty Finkbeiner and Pete Gerken, a Lucas County commissioner, both noted that the city, county, and port authority jointly applied last week for a $5 million grant from the Ohio Department of Development's "Jobs-Ready Site" program to apply to those preparatory costs. The $5 million is the maximum grant available through that program. "If this isn't a job-ready site, I don't know what is," Mr. Gerken said.

Chevron, which bought the site from Gulf after the refinery's 1982 shutdown, had spent more than $19 million to clean up residual pollution left over from Gulf's operations there.

Mr. Hartung and others praised Chevron for its work, noting that the company spent more than $6 million beyond what was required by the Voluntary Action Plan agreement into which it entered with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.

The site is bounded to the northwest by the Maumee River; to the northeast by a BP Oil barge terminal, the George Gradl Co., and Millard Avenue; to the southeast by the CSX Transportation railroad, and to the southwest by the Norfolk Southern railroad. Front Street divides the property into eastern and western sections.

Its acquisition, Mr. Hartung said, is a step toward pursuing Toledo's future as a transportation center whose location and assets elevate it above competitors.

"We have a strategic convergence of geography and transportation assets," the port president said.

Achieving that potential, he said, "is going to require political will and the elimination of turfism. Today is a step. It's not the end of the journey, it's the beginning of the journey."

Contact David Patch at:
dpatch@theblade.com
or 419-724-6094.


Permanent Link

Nation/World
Updated: 3:22 pm
Historic health care bill clears Senate hurdle >>
Cops/Courts
Updated: 3:22 pm
Toledoan arrested in bank robbery >>
Cops/Courts
Updated: 3:22 pm
Woman avoids life sentence in drug case >>
Cops/Courts
Updated: 3:21 pm
Police hunt gunmen in robbery on Upton Ave. >>
Education
Updated: 9:37 am
Faculty objects to changing UT’s tenure process >>
Blade Area
Updated: 3:21 pm
400 competitors match wits in state chess meet at Owens >>
More news stories
 



click here!

ADVERTISING SECTIONS
S. Amjad Hussain
Updated: 4:26 am
Muslims must do more than condemn acts of violence >>

Marilou Johanek
Updated: 5:58 am
In a dog's life, there's nothing to worry about >>

Jack Kelly
Updated: 6:26 am
Obama’s vendetta >>

Jack Lessenberry
Updated: 7:42 am
Dog warden coverage is public service journalism >>

Rose Russell
Updated: 6:24 am
The food you waste could feed hungry people  >>

David Shribman
Updated: 8:52 am
U.S. has much to relearn from China >>

Mike Sigov
Updated: 6:26 am
GM acted wisely by hitting brakes on Russian deal >>

Tom Walton
Updated: 5:00 am
Young adult binge drinking nothing to slough off >>

More columnist stories
MOST READ STORIES
1.  First Solar plant re-energized
2.  The view from the penthouse
3.  Toledoan arrested in bank robbery
4.  Lucas County Dog warden leaves legacy of passion, polarization
5.  Police hunt gunmen in robbery on Upton Ave.
6.  Woman avoids life sentence in drug case
7.  The artist's vision: Sylvania ophthalmologist studies how painters' vision problems affect their work
8.  Thanksgiving dinners await local needy, lonely
9.  Enduring charm of ‘Nutcracker'
10.  Toledo Magazine: What is the American Dream?
MOST E-MAILED STORIES
1.  Owens failed to address shortcomings in nursing
2.  BGSU plans for 2 new dormitories
3.  Buckeyes sport retro look of 1954
4.  Owens students get apology for lost accreditation
5.  Toledo fares poorly in survey
6.  Skeldon says he will step down Dec. 31, but Konop wants him dismissed immediately
7.  Ex-OSU coach Bruce instills passion for rivalry
8.  Company outlines $37.5M port plan
9.  Chrysler boosts Dundee plant; engine line to gain jobs, add output
10.  Owens faculty vote no confidence in provost


AP  News Headlines



AP  Business Headlines



AP  Sports Headlines


AP  Features Headlines
Copyright 2009 The Blade. By using this service, you accept the terms of our privacy statement and our visitor agreement. Please read them.
The Toledo Blade Company, 541 N. Superior St., Toledo, OH 43660, (419) 724-6000
To contact a specific
department or an individual person, click here.
The Toledo Times ®