You’ve probably seen this article in Sunday’s NJ that spins out a vision by Tom Gordon to expand on the Port of Wilmington by building a new facility directly on the Delaware River capable of handling the larger ships coming through the world’s seaways. This new facility would be south of the current port, just south of the Delaware Memorial Bridge. I give Tom Gordon some credit for thinking about capitalizing on the current Port asset. I wrote about this alot when I was writing about Kinder Morgan and I’m still surprised that this isn’t higher up on the economic development agenda.
To be sure, this is spun out in a way that best showcases Tom Gordon. There have apparently been some private meetings with the current owner of the property and the longshoremen. You’d think that people from the State and the current Port leadership would also be at the table to help shape this concept. This effort won’t be successful unless all of the stakeholders are rowing in the same direction. Certainly the kind of private investment that Gordon’s plan seems to call for won’t come anywhere near this thing unless the State and the current Port aren’t on board. I’m less clear about how the Boxwood road site might be a part of this.
Still, at least someone is thinking about how to expand on the Port and its business. This is going to be important and we are behind the curve here if we think about this in terms of the kind of planning that Ports competing with us have done and built on. Lots of folks at the Port and with businesses outside the fence dream about a pier that would extent into the Delaware that might accommodate deeper draft ships. There’s plenty of questions about this venture — including whether developing this site is better than developing the empty land directly adjacent to the Port for expansion. Remember that the Kinder Morgan episode started when it became clear that they were NOT going to expand the Port as previously sold — they were just going to enter into a long lease and make some repairs and improvements to the current footprint. Money is going to be an issue, as is deciding the import and export targets. Wilmington has a great niche in the fruit and vegetables business. What else can be done that won’t interfere with that? What else could be done that might enhance that and lock in that expertise? An economic study would be a good start (and the article says that Gordon is going to try to get the money from the County Council),and that study should include the businesses outside of the Port fence who have been instrumental in building new lines of imports and exports. These people are already thinking about how to better use the Port and are employing a great many locals who are benefiting from that expansion.
It’s good that some strategic thinking about the Port is going on. Time to get the State and the Port’s Board in on the action.