Liquid bulk tenant vacates Los Angeles port

Liquid bulk tenant vacates Los Angeles port Westway Terminal Corp., under terms of a multimillion-dollar buyout from Los Angeles port officials, has fully vacated its liquid bulk facility at the port five months early, according to city officials.
   The buyout agreement, signed last year after more than five years of negotiations, provided the New Orleans-based Westway 18 months from the Los Angeles City Council's August 2007 approval of the deal to vacate the 12.1-acre site.
   The $17 million buyout also terminated the firm's previous lease with the port that had been set to run through 2025.
   The facility, which handled and stored liquid commodities such as solvents, vegetable oils, lubricant base, aviation gasoline and acids, has 136 storage tanks with a 25-million-gallon total storage capacity.
   Part of the buyout agreement allowed Westway to avoid site clean-up costs that were required under the original lease agreement. The port, in partnership with the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board, expects to spend upward of $30 million to conduct a lengthy environmental clean-up of the site.
   The city hopes to use the property as part of a public waterfront-promenade development project.