WestCalPort
June 19, 2023
Highlighting port activities in 2022 were:
- Tenant support/retention/recruitment
- Southern Devall expanded its presence at the port with leasing of the green and yellow buildings as they continue to operate barge fleeting services at the port.
- VLS Marine Services continued to operate its wet barge cleaning/stripping services for a second year using temporary arrangements as it awaits relocation into the old STAR building once it is repaired.
- River Barge Works continues to operate at the far west end of the basin.
- Atlantic Equipment leases two fenced acres and additional port property to store/market construction equipment (scaffolding, concrete barriers) from regional construction projects.
- General Equipment Services was given notice of lease non-renewal in November and has committed to vacating its lease acreage by the end of January 2023.
- Right-of-way agreement with Stream ROW Services was successfully negotiated and signed for a pipeline ROW. The ROW will support the movement of dredge spoils from the Driftwood LNG Export Terminal site to the port. Still to be negotiated is the siting/location of a proposed auxiliary pump station that will be required to facilitate the movement of approximately eight million cubic yards of spoils to numerous beneficial dredge spoil sites west of the port.
- Infrastructure improvements:
- FEMA agreed to declare the old VLS Building a total loss and eligible for demolition and replacement at another location. The port has enlisted a local architectural firm to assist with preliminary plans for a replacement structure on port property.
- Public advertising to seek competitive bids was placed in local news media in December in an effort to select a contractor for the construction of a heavy-duty crane pad and 600 linear feet of new bulkhead along the port’s Gulf Intracoastal Waterway shoreline. The construction project was made possible by a $4.2 million federal grant through the Economic Development Administration – a division of the U.S. Department of Commerce. The grant is funding 80 percent of the project. A Port Priority Program grant also was made possible by the Louisiana Department of Transportation & Development will cover 90 percent of the costs associated with the dredging of the waterfront along the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway where the bulkhead will be constructed.
- The Orion Building repairs were completed.
- The public bid process for the STAR Building repairs has resulted in the identification of a local contractor to make the necessary repairs in 2023
- Financial growth/Investment development/asset expansion
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- Last, but not least, below is the year-by-year “bottom line” fiscal position of the port as demonstrated by the numbers below (dating back 16 years) – note that 2021 and 2022 operating income numbers were impacted significantly by the ongoing natural disaster recovery challenges.
Total Assets Operating Income
2007 2,946,060 128,287
2008 3,215,264 175,090
2009 3,635,484 156,270
2010 5,297,190 18,897
2011 5,497,810 234,950
2012 6,662,381 322,117
2013 9,485,670 373,449
2014 10,467,096 395,947
2015 10,790,567 362,450
2016 12,426,064 349,864
2017 13,327,719 401,773
2018 16,741,770 281,679
2019 18,659,577 281,256
2020 20,051,348 411,612
2021 21,381,372 35,925
2022 $22,133,143 $32,615
