Tacoma Native American tribe looks to enter box terminal industry

Tacoma Native American tribe looks to enter box terminal industry While some Native American tribes have banked future financial wellbeing of their members on casino gambling, at least one is also banking on international trade.
   The Tacoma, Wash.-area Puyallup Tribe, the Port of Tacoma, and Seattle-based marine terminal operator SSA Marine have finalized a deal to cooperate on developing a 180-acre container terminal at the port. Also signing the deal as a separate party was Marine View Ventures, the economic development arm of the Puyallup Tribe.
   If all parties follow through on the agreement, it would allow the tribe to expand the scope of their proposed terminal, to be sited on the former location of the tribe's Emerald Casino on the Blair Waterway. SSA Marine would design, construct and operate the tribe's terminal. Expected to cost SSA Marine $300 million, the terminal is set for completion in 2012.
   A previous deal in April 2007 saw SSA transfer 52 acres at the terminal site to the tribe.
   A $162 million land claims settlement signed by the state in 1988 allows the tribe to diversify its business interests and enter the maritime business.
   Under terms of the memorandum of intent signed by the parties Thursday, SSA and the port will widen the Blair Waterway to a distance of 850 feet at the planned terminal site, which will allow the construction of three deepwater piers at the port's Berths 1-3.
   In return for allowing the widening, which will remove 12.5 acres of Puyallup land, the tribe will be sold five parcels of port property totaling 19.64 acres to improve the overall layout of the future tribe-SSA terminal. The lost tribal property is estimated to be worth $8.16 million. The property to be sold to the tribe includes
   ' 11.2 acres along the widened channel in three parcels valued at a total of $7.3 million.
   ' A three-acre parcel valued at $1.3 million.
   ' 4.24-acre parcel with 1.2 acres of submerged lands with an agreed upon price of $4 million.
   The MOI also calls for the tribe to enter into a 25-year lease for the port's Berth 3 area, at an undetermined rate, with an renewal option of an additional 25 years. The agreement also call for the port to develop a container terminal at the Berth 4 area and, following completion of construction, lease the more than 20-acre site to SSA at an annual base rate of $5.5 million.
   The three parties have been negotiating the MOI, the first of its kind with a Native American tribe, since last summer.
   “There’s been times in recent and past history when this may not have been possible with all the players involved, but we’ve reached a new time where everyone can come away happy and know that we’ve broken new ground,” Marine View Ventures Chief Executive Officer Chad Wright told the Seattle Press-Intelligencer.
   The 3,500-member Puyallup Tribe operates two casinos, a hotel, the Chinook landing Marina, several gas stations and other businesses through Marine View Ventures.