APM Terminals touts takeover plan to Virginia mayors

   Eric Sisco, president of APM Terminals America, said the company’s proposal to lease and operate the Virginia Port Authority (VPA) facilities could free up cash for other transportation projects in the state.
   In a letter to municipal and county officials, APMT said its proposal would transfer ownership of its APM Terminal in Portsmouth to the commonwealth and “free up nearly $4 billion that the commonwealth can dedicate to transportation improvements and for needed development of the cities that host the port activities.”
   Sisco’s letter was sent Monday.
   On Thursday, the state will hold a public meeting where APMT and two other companies – Carlyle Group and a unit of Deutsche Bank – hoping to win the right to lease and run the VPA terminals will outline their plans at a hearing before the VPA’s board of commissioners in Norfolk. The current operator of the port, Virginia International Terminals, will also make a presentation.
   Sisco added “APM Terminals is committed to take on the capital investment necessary to grow jobs, to grow cargo, and to develop the port. If approved, we will invest more than $2 billion in capital investments into the port. Because we’ll double the size of the current APM Terminals facility and modernize and expand NIT and the other facilities we’ll also delay, for decades to come, the need for Virginia to commit another $1.5 billion to $2 billion to the planned development of Craney Island.”
   Sisco responded to a Sept. 4 letter sent to Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell and members of the General Assembly by a group of 38 mayors and county officals called “Virginia’s Urban Crescent.”
   In the letter those local officials said they have become “increasingly alarmed by the transportation funding crisis currently facing the commonwealth” and highlighted “the necessity for additional funding to address transportation infrastructure needs.” – Chris Dupin