Two submit bids on Virginia port terminals

Two submit bids on Virginia port terminals    The Virginia Port Authority received two additional proposals by companies interested in operating VPA-owned container terminals.
   Carlyle Group, the Washington-based private equity company, and a partnership between Seattle-based Carrix Inc. and Goldman Sachs, have made proposals to compete with an offer submitted in March by CenterPoint Properties. Carrix is a joint venture between Goldman Sachs Infrastructure Partners and the Smith-Hemingway family.
   Bob Watters, a spokesman for Carrix, said his firm would leave it up to Virginia to release details of the proposal, but said his firm believed it was superior, in part because it combined the terminal operating experience of Carrix’s subsidiary Stevedoring Services of America and the financial resources and management expertise of Goldman Sachs.
   Details on the bids were not available.
   CenterPoint Properties, a Chicago-area warehousing company that is almost entirely owned by the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (Calpers), made an unsolicited bid in March to take over the marine terminals that the VPA has in Norfolk, Portsmouth and Newport News, as well as an inland intermodal terminal in Front Royal, Va., for 60 years. It also would acquire the right to develop a new container terminal at Craney Island.
   CenterPoint made the proposal under Virginia’s Public-Private Transportation Act of 1995 that allows private entities to enter into agreements to construct, improve, maintain and operate transportation facilities.
   CenterPoint has said its proposal would provide $8.9 billion in total value to the commonwealth over the life of the concession, or $3.5-billion in today’s dollars.
   The state invited competing offers, which were due Monday morning.
   CenterPoint, which is 97-percent-owned by Calpers, has developed or is the process of developing eight or nine inland intermodal ports, in addition to extensive warehouse holdings. Its flagship logistics park is in Joliet, Ill., and it is building a $325 million logistics park in the Hampton Roads area city of Suffolk, Va.
   Virginia Transportation Department officials have said it could take them another year or more to make a final decision on privatization. It is not obligated to accept any of the proposals. ' Eric Kulisch