Well, I heard that The Port of St. Helens approved a 99-year lease agreement on land needed for the Liquified Natural Gas terminal near Clatskanie.
Lorraine and I won't be moving there anytime soon.
The Longview paper reported that the lease is for 145 acres along the Columbia River at Port Westward owned by the Thompson family of Clackamas County. Port business development manager Greg Jenks said last week that he expects the family to approve the agreement soon. Delays in obtaining the lease had caused one major LNG investor to withdraw from the Port Westward LNG project in February.
So, this is pretty much the big green-light for the long-discussed LNG project, which still needs permits and financing, though Jenks said there have been "serious inquiries" from financial backers since the port approved the lease agreement Monday. This from the Longview paper:
"We now have control of the waterfront for LNG projects," Jenks said. "This is a good development."
The lease gives the Port six months to sub-lease the land to the LNG developer or the Thompsons take the property back.
For the first four years, the Thompson family will make $200,000 off the lease and $550,000 annually afterward, according to Jenks. Port Westward LNG already holds purchase options on more than 1,000 acres just west of the Port Westward property, which is owned by the Port of St. Helens. However, it also needed the Thompson property to accommodate the terminal.
I tell y’all who won't be making money: Columbia County schools or anything else for that matter, will not be getting anything out of this for years to come. The plant is in both an Enterprise Zone and an Urban Renewal District. Within an enterprise zone, taxes are deferred and then phased in over a 7 to 10 year period. Within Urban Renewal Distincts, all taxes collected will remain in the district for 20 years. This means that if taxes are collected, they can only be spent in the Urban renewal District for improvements within the district. So, your Schools do not get a penny out of this, nor does the county. This is worth considering when you understand that the Port of St. Helens stepped in to broker this lease deal after direct negotiations between the property owners and Port Westward CEO Spiro Vassilopoulos broke down.
The Port Westward LNG project could create hundreds of construction jobs and 55 permanent jobs once completed. The LNG terminal is one of three major industrial projects the Port is pushing at its land in the Port Westward, which already is home of Portland General Electric's Beaver power generating plant. PGE is building a $300 million natural gas power plant there that should be online by May 2007. The port also is hoping Cascade Grain builds a $126 million ethanol plant in the area.
Keep your eyes and ears out; there's a bunch of wheelin’ and dealin’ goin’ down here.
-Tom
