Vancouver USA port purchases future container terminal site

Vancouver USA port purchases future container terminal site The Washington state Port of Vancouver's governing board on Tuesday approved spending more than $48 million to purchase two adjacent waterfront industrial parcels at the port.
   The port will obtain $40 million of the sale price from general obligation bonds and pay nearly $9 million in cash for the combined 208-acre tract.
   Earlier this year the port had proposed a levy tax to pay for the property, but voters defeated the measure in November.
   Under terms of the agreement, Alcoa Aluminum will receive about $24 million for their 107-acre parcel, with the remaining $35 million going to Evergreen Aluminum LLC for their part of the property.
   Washington state port officials and representatives of the aluminum-producing giant Alcoa reached a general agreement on the purchase of their parcel in January. The parties signed a letter of intent Feb. 1 and further negotiations led to a final agreement. The agreement calls for the transaction to close in the first half of 2008.
   In addition to the property, the Alcoa portion of the deal also transfers ownership to the port of the Alcoa facility's alumina unloading dock, silos, conveyors, rail load-out and accessory structures and equipment for the operation of the unloading facility.
   The agreement calls for the site to be cleaned by Alcoa to MTCA industrial standards — enforced by the Washington State Department of Ecology.
   Following the transfer and cleanup, the port hopes to begin construction of the West Vancouver Freight Access Project on the site. The project will create a unit train facility at the port, increasing capacity for rail freight flowing through the port and along the BNSF Railway mainlines that connect the Pacific Northwest to major rail hubs in Chicago and Houston and from Canada to Mexico.
   Estimates predict that when the project is complete the new facility could create 1,900 local jobs, $64 million in direct income annually and about $24 million in tax revenue annually for the community.
   Auto importer Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics Americas and ethanol producer Rappaport Energy Consulting are both mentioned as possible tenants. ' Keith Higginbotham