By David Bauerlein Plans to build a "superport" on about 1,000 acres on the Northside would make Keystone Industries a major force at Jacksonville's port, its president said Wednesday.Tom Scholl discussed the plan after he joined Gov. Rick Scott and Mayor Alvin Brown for a ceremony dedicating a different Keystone project — the company's recently opened shipping terminal on 110 acres in the Talleyrand area.Scholl said the Northside development would be 10 times as big as the Talleyrand terminal and would contain a manufacturing plant in addition to areas for cargo shipments."It's going to create thousands of jobs," he said.
He did not elaborate during his speech. But after the event he said Keystone has entered into an agreement with landowner Abraham Zion to develop property owned by Zion along Heckscher Drive.The plan envisions areas for cargo shipments and a manufacturing plant. The site would have railroad tracks to connect with a CSX line. The total cost would be in the hundreds of millions of dollars, Scholl said.Scholl declined to identify the company that would do the manufacturing. He said the development would need a deeper ship channel to handle large, heavily loaded ships. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is in the midst of studying the cost to deepen the river's 40-foot channel to 50 feet. The study compares the expense to the commercial benefits of a deeper channel.Scholl said he wants the Zion property "to be a superport, and to be a superport, we have to have the dredging."The Jacksonville Port Authority previously considered the Zion property as a site for a container cargo terminal for Hanjin Shipping. JaxPort pulled back when it couldn't reach a purchase agreement with Zion and decided to use land on Dames Point for Hanjin.
I believe the Zion property straddles Eastport Road, near the paper mill. I wonder would Heckscher Drive have to be elevated to allow for better access to the riverfront?
Would be fantastic. BUT, the river needs to be dredged and Mile Point needs to be dealt with first.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is in the midst of studying the cost to deepen the river's 40-foot channel to 50 feet. The study compares the expense to the commercial benefits of a deeper channel.
We need to come up with about a $1 billion in funding to handle the dredging issue. Without that, neither this nor Hajin will happen. Any ideas of how to come up with that type of money for a city who's $62 million in the hole already?