New York-New Jersey port acquires land to build Bayonne, N.J. terminal

New York-New Jersey port acquires land to build Bayonne, N.J. terminal The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey will acquire a 153-acre tract in Bayonne, N.J., for development into a marine terminal for $50.9 million under a plan approved by its board of commissioners Thursday.
   But the deal comes with an important restriction: The land, located on the former Military Ocean Terminal in Bayonne, cannot be used as a container terminal.
   Members of the International Longshoremen’s Association asked the port authority to delay a vote on the deal, and said they would continue to work on trying to modify the no-container port restriction.
   Anthony Falcicchio, the president of ILA Local 1588 — which also represents workers at the adjacent Global Container Terminal — said the local was “vigorously opposed” to the restriction.
   “By not aggressively pursuing this property as a container port the port authority is risking the wellbeing of the entire port and the region,” Falcicchio said.
   A roll-on/roll-off facility, he said, will not create as many jobs as a container port.
   The Bayonne site and Global Terminal are the only facilities that can potentially handle large new containerships because ships calling them do not have to contend with air draft restriction presented by the Bayonne Bridge, he said.
   Christopher Ragucci, an executive with the Worldwide Group, which helped revive the Howland Hook Container Terminal on Staten Island a decade ago, said a group that includes his company and the Shaw Group had proposed to build a $400 million turnkey container terminal that could handle about 1.5 million containers.
   But the port authority board of commissioners voted unanimously to approve the acquisition of the land from the Bayonne Local Redevelopment Authority, which plans to have developers build luxury housing on portions of the gritty former Army base, which features spectacular views of lower Manhattan. The former terminal, which has a total of 437 acres, also includes a shipyard.
   Port Commerce Director Richard M. Larrabee said that even if a new terminal in Bayonne is not used directly for container cargo, it may be possible to relocate operations from other locations around the port to free up space for container cargo.
   But Larrabee said it was still too early to say exactly how the new land will be used.