S.F. port looking to attract cargo handling firm

S.F. port looking to attract cargo handling firm The Port of San Francisco is looking to attract a new cargo tenant to a long-abandoned pier on the city’s eastern waterfront.
   Hoping to bolster its cargo-handling portfolio, San Francisco port officials are looking for a firm willing to turn an 18-acre site at Pier 96 into a new cargo facility.
   Port officials predict that rent from a possible facility could bring in more than $2 million a year and help close the port's $900 million budget shortfall for port-wide capital improvements.
   The port's cargo volumes peaked in 2004 at 2.4 million metric tons, but following a 2005 decision to eliminate container traffic in favor of bulk cargo, volumes have declined to 1.6 million metric tons last year. Once the West Coast's leading cargo handling port, San Francisco saw its fortunes shift as containerization took hold in the maritime industry and firms seeking large open areas for container facilities moved to nearby Oakland. Since the 1970s, the San Francisco port has focused on breakbulk, dry bulk, ship repair and ferry services.
   While the San Francisco port now generates most of its $70 million operating budget from property leases of port property to businesses such as AT&T Park, the mall-like Pier 39, Fisherman’s Wharf and the Ferry Building, about 20 percent of its revenues are still related to cargo businesses operating at Piers 80 and 94.