Va. port privatization review to take 12-18 months

Va. port privatization review to take 12-18 months

Bridges

   The Virginia Port Authority said it will be business as usual while the state evaluates the proposal announced last week that a real estate developer was seeking to operate Virginia port facilities under the state's Public Private Transportation Act.
   The port authority said operations will “continue as usual while officials at the office of the secretary of Virginia Department of Transportation begin to evaluate the recent, unsolicited offer.'
   Illinois-based CenterPoint Properties Inc. has proposed leasing the operating rights of the state's three deep-water general cargo marine terminals — Norfolk International Terminal, Portsmouth Marine Terminal and Newport News Marine Terminal — and its intermodal ramp, the Virginia Inland Port for 60 years. CenterPoint said it also wanted to “acquire and employ VIT to run the Port under the continued oversight of the Virginia Port Authority.”
   “Additionally, Virginia International Terminals Inc., will continue to be the terminals' daily management and operational company as it has done since 1982,” the port said.
   'We anticipate the process of evaluating this proposal to take between 12 and 18 months and during that period our focus will continue be on customer service, delivery of service and our commitment to making Virginia the leading port on the U.S. East Coast,' said Jerry A. Bridges, the VPA's executive director. 'Customers will continue to work with the same VPA and VIT representatives they have been working with in the past; nothing has changed.'