Alabama port authority buys industrial properties

   The Alabama State Port Authority on Monday completed the purchase of two industrial properties formerly owned by Walter Energy.
   The properties cost the port $25 million, and include about 35 acres fronting the port’s channel and another 63-acre tract within one-half mile of harbor. Both properties are adjacent to the port’s Choctaw Point Complex at Mobile.
   In addition, the port authority and Walter Energy agreed to amended terms in a coal-handling agreement through which the port currently handles the company’s coal exports through the McDuffie Coal Terminal. The port authority extended the existing coal handling agreement and agreed to certain improvements at its coal facility to accommodate future coal exports from Walter Energy’s Alabama mines.
   James K. Lyons, chief executive officer at the port, said the land purchases are essential to the authority’s intermodal investments geared to increasing its container business.