JACKSONVILLE -- The Jacksonville Port Authority's No. 2 executive will be in South Korea the week of March 17 working to finish a development and lease contract to build the port's biggest container terminal.
The authority and Hanjin Shipping Company Ltd. have been negotiating since signing a memorandum of understanding Oct. 18, 2007, at Hanjin's headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, regarding a proposed 170-acre terminal.
Negotiations have been tough, said Ron Baker, the authority's chief financial officer and deputy executive director, with both sides looking out for their stakeholders' interests. But despite the memorandum of understanding's expiration date looming in mid-April, he's confident his trip will close or nearly close the deal.
The memorandum of understanding calls for the port authority to finance $230 million to develop the terminal and $120 million to pay for equipment and other operational resources. It also calls for Hanjin to pay the principal and interest on such financing.
"We've been crystal clear from the outset that the financial responsibility for the terminal will be theirs," Baker said. "If someone wants to come here, they have to have skin in the game."
The time between the initial announcement and signing a lease contract has been longer than what was seen with Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd., which will open a $230 million, 158-acre container terminal in January 2009.
Read the rest in Jacksonville Business Journal.
It's for the good of Jacksonville, I suppose, but the expansion of the port meant that a lovely, quiet neighborhood on the river with lots of old oak trees was razed to make way for it. I doubt that the payment that the families received for their block and brick houses could buy them a similar-sized lot on the river anywhere in Jacksonville.
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