Commissioner Murman quoted in this Tampa Tribune article on Port Redwing:
Port Redwing plans for steel manufacturing hub dealt setback
By Yvette C. Hammett | Tribune Staff
Published: January 20, 2016
Updated: January 20, 2016 at 08:29 PM
TAMPA — When Port Tampa Bay announced plans in 2014 to create a cluster of steel manufacturers at Port Redwing, Hillsborough County Commissioner Sandy Murman envisioned good-paying jobs flowing to her fast-growing South Shore district.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers may have dealt the port and the county a setback to those plans by declining to sign off on funding for a $50- to $60-million dredging project to deepen a channel allowing larger ships to access the port. The larger ships are needed to haul freight such as scrap metal, salt, sulfur, coal or cement.
Before approving the project for funding, the Corps wants a study to prove it’s a cost effective strategy.
Port officials say they had hoped to get the funding in the Corps’ 2015 budget. Still, they said, they can continue to expand Port Redwing without the dredging project and have already allocated millions in improvements to draw more companies. But they concede there are a lot of companies they can’t attract in the future without deepening Big Bend Channel.
Murman, a commissioner on the Tampa Port Authority Board, says time is of the essence and the port needs to move forward now to get the funding.
“I’m very concerned that this project for South County — a huge economic development initiative — won’t move forward fast enough to keep up with the growth in South Shore,” she said.
“Given that the Corps wants another study, it behooves us to have another conversation at the next board meeting to move that process forward and get it done.”
Murman and other board members learned Tuesday that the Corps never committed to the funding. Ram Kancharla, the port’s vice president of planning and development, told the board the Corps gave no explanation.
But Corps Project Manager Milan Mora said through his public information officer Wednesday that is not the case. He said the Corps told the port it needed to conduct another cost-benefit study to prove the project worthy.
The Corps looked at the project in 2014 and determined “the cost to benefit ratio did not materialize (in big part due to a reduction in phosphate and coal being shipped),” Corps spokeswoman Susan Jackson said in an email to the Tribune. “We recommended a new study based on potential new benefits.”
John Thorington, the port’s vice president of government affairs, said Port Tampa Bay plans to meet again shortly with the Corps to discuss the project, but no decision has been made on another study.
Murman says the study needs to get underway if that is the fast track to funding.
“Seventy-five percent of new growth is this county is expected to be between the Alafia River (in Riverview) and the Little Manatee River (in Ruskin),” she said. “We can’t afford to lay back.”
If the port is able to move forward with completing its steel manufacturing hub at Port Redwing, that will lead to spin-off businesses in the greater south county area, which means even more good-paying jobs, Murman said.
“When you have a hub like that, it will inspire spin-offs in the larger area, which could lead to job training opportunities. We’ve got the education centers already in place to do that. It’s the perfect storm.”
Kancharla told the board Tuesday that the staff fully expected to get the funding from the Corps, especially since it had signed up Tampa Electric Co., Mosaic Fertilizer and the state of Florida as partners for the plans. Both TECO and Mosaic use the Big Bend Channel now.
At this point, Thorington said, the port staff is considering its options. “But already, we are beginning to grow and see a lot more potential” for even more growth in that Port Redwing vicinity, he said.
Tampa Tank and Florida Structural Steel, along with Gulf Coast Bulk Equipment, have already established manufacturing facilities at Port Redwing and the port is in discussions with several other companies that might want to locate there.
The port already has construction underway on $30 million in improvements at Port Redwing: the addition of a 3-mile long rail spur with a double track running from the existing CSX line to Port Redwing; construction of a security complex, a new 1,000-foot dock; an access road to U.S. 41 and utility and site improvements.
The Big Bend Channel can currently accommodate ships of 15,000- to 30,000 dead weight tons, Kancharla said. By deepening the channel from 34 feet to 43 feet and widening it from 200 feet to 250 feet, it could accommodate vessels of 50,000- to 60,000 dead weight tons. “To maximize use of the land we would hope to go to a deeper draft to bring in larger ships,” he said.
“We never say die,” Port President and CEO Paul Anderson told the board Tuesday. “We will come back with another proposal.”
In his State of the Port address to the business community on Wednesday, Anderson talked about the port’s future and the need to accommodate larger ships.
He said the port is expanding through diversity, optimizing its real estate, investing in infrastructure to accommodate larger container ships and preparing a more efficient supply chain to hook up with the growing number of distribution centers popping up along the Interstate 4 corridor.
