Among the most notable proceedings, the board approved entering into a joint participation agreement (JPA) with the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT—Dist. 7), for more than $6 million for railroad construction and related improvements at Hooker’s Point, the epicenter of port activity and location of the port’s burgeoning container terminal. Toward those improvements, the port authority will match the state funds by more than $2 million.
The board also approved nearly $1.1 million for engineering and consultant services for the design and permitting of petroleum piping systems, a key component of a complete modernization of the port’s REK petroleum terminal complex—a nearly $50 million project that is ostensibly one of the most important port projects ever undertaken. The REK terminal complex is a critical petroleum gateway, serving 8 million consumers in west/central Florida, as well as providing aviation fuel for the Orlando International Airport. Petroleum and related products comprise the single-largest commodity sector at the Port of Tampa.
In another move by the board, $2.3 million was approved for remediation of the former Tampa Scrap site, a 17-acre tract of land that will be available to serve port development needs and possibly support growth of the port’s container terminal. A major strategic focus, the container terminal was expanded in 2010, from 25 to 40 acres. Most recently, an additional 700 feet of berth length was completed, signifying the completion of the latest phase of development.
In support of crucial, ongoing maintenance dredging of port berths, the board approved a one-year contract worth more than $7.5 million with Orion Dredging Services, LLC. Such navigational improvements are extremely important, allowing public and private port berths to continue to be operable at authorized depths.
In a very green initiative, the port board also approved an amendment to an existing agreement with NexLube Tampa, a company that is planning to invest more than $80 million in a plant on Pendola Point that will produce lubricants from a projected 24 million gallons of recycled oil annually. Utilizing recycling technology that is currently in use in Europe, the NexLube project entails reprocessing used oil, largely discarded from automobile oil changes, into motor oil that is equal or superior to retail motor oil. NexLube executives were present at the meeting to provide very encouraging statistics such as 1,000 jobs to be created in the initial construction phase and 100 permanent employees when operational. They expect to generate some $1.5 million in property taxes for Hillsborough County and provide an eventual $10 million in lease revenue to the port authority. Production of lubricants, diesel and asphalt from recycled oil will generate imports and exports for the Port of Tampa and be a continual recycling effort, reducing contamination of soil, rivers, lakes and groundwater. The board lauded NexLube for continuing to move forward with this project.
The Tampa Port Authority (www.tampaport.com ) administers Florida’s largest and one of the nation’s most diversified ports. Also a premier cruise home port, the Port of Tampa is the largest economic engine in west and central Florida, generating nearly 100,000 jobs and billions of dollars in economic impact annually.