LONGVIEW — The Port of Longview has signed an exclusive agreement to negotiate with a prospective tenant for its old Continental Grain terminal at Berth 4.
Although negotiations are still in their infancy, the suitor’s proposal was attractive enough that the port in December decided to terminate discussions on a proposed $125 million soda ash terminal at the berth.
The port has regularly received inquiries over the past two decades from businesses interested developing the old industrial area, but none have been a good fit until now, port officials indicated.
The exclusivity agreement — which precludes the port from negotiating with other potential tenants — came to light at a port commissioners meeting Wednesday when Chris Douville, president of the American Soda Ash Corporation, asked the port to reconsider its position.
“We were very surprised in December when we were told that port management was no longer interested in having discussions with ANSAC and that they had moved in a different direction,” he told the three port commissioners and port staff.
That direction appears to be a different commodity export terminal.
The project, considered “significant” by port standards, will eventually result in a dry bulk export facility with unit train service, said Ashley Helenberg, the port’s director of external affairs. The commodity will not be a fossil fuel, she said.
Helenberg said she was unable to provide additional details Wednesday about the potential project’s economic impact because the prospective tenant’s financial investment has yet to be fully calculated. The port also is not ready to identify the party because negotiations are ongoing, but the public will have ample opportunity to review the project as it develops, she said.
The proposed project “includes significant economic benefits for the local community,” she added.
The port’s exclusivity agreement is particularly significant because ANSAC was proposing a major project of its own. As the international distribution arm for the nation’s three largest soda ash producers, ANSAC first began negotiating with the port in 2016 on a project at Berth 4, Douville said in an interview.
The project’s $125 million price tag included initial design work for the site as well as equipment, possible construction of extra storage space, a new ship loader and the cost of adding significant amounts of railroad track, Douville said.
ANSAC was unable to provide an estimate for how many total jobs the project would create because the company has not completed the final design work, he said. But the ANSAC terminal would have exported about 6 million tons of product annually, he said.
Soda ash is similar to baking soda. It occurs naturally and is used in manufacturing of glass, detergents and other industrial products.
The company — which has based its export operations in Portland since the mid-’90s — already loads ships in Longview when it has additional capacity needs. It loaded ships here each of the last two months.
With its contract in Portland set to expire, ANSAC examined 10 West Coast ports for an expansion project. The company ultimately selected Longview’s Berth 4 as one of three potential locations for a new soda ash export terminal. ANSAC needs to make a final decision by June, Douville said.
Berth 4 has favorable infrastructure that makes it a good site for ANSAC export operations, he said.
Douville said he hopes the port will re-evaluate its position, but it’s unclear if his public comments Wednesday swayed commissioners.
“I’m here today to ask the commission whether the current path chosen will provide the greatest long-term value to the port and to the local community,” he said.
Berth 4 has sat vacant since Continental Grain abandoned the port in the late 1980s. Port commissioners in July approved a $280,000 contract with Seattle-based Crete Consulting, Inc. to begin environmental assessment for demolishing Continental’s derelict grain silos.
