A $2 million deal for Steel Dynamics Inc. to purchase 90 acres of the Lowndes County Port Authority’s East Bank has fallen through.
Port Director Will Sanders told The Dispatch Wednesday that the company and the Golden Triangle Development LINK notified him and the Lowndes County Board of Supervisors in late October that it no longer intends to purchase the land.
“There really isn’t much to say about it,” Sanders said. “It was a cut-and-dry deal, and we met with (LINK CEO Joe Max Higgins), and he told us they backed out of their option.”
SDI secured an option to purchase the land in 2022 when it announced a $2.5 billion project to build a flat-roll aluminum mill on a 2,100-acre site on Charleigh D. Ford Jr. Drive and a biocarbon facility on Artesia Road.
At the time, SDI proposed a logistics center to handle on-loading and offloading to and from the port to support ADI’s operations. That option, which came at no cost to SDI, was set to expire in December 2024.
LINK CEO Joe Max Higgins said the company no longer needs the land for a proposed logistics facility because of a merger between Kansas City Southern Rail Company and Canadian Pacific, which will allow SDI to ship in raw materials via more available rail lines for the aluminum mill.
KCSR announced the merger’s completion in April.
“Some of the raw products (SDI) is looking to bring in come from Canada,” Higgins said. “They now have the ability to load product on a rail car and ship it directly to the mill instead of running it through the port and now won’t incur additional transportation costs.”
Higgins added that SDI’s decision will not impact any business it already does with the port to on and offload materials coming to and from its steel mill on Airport Road.
“I personally would have loved for SDI to have used the port and got to benefit from it to help create more jobs in the area, but quite frankly, they’ve got a better alternative that they think is better for them,” Higgins said.
Sanders said the port authority is working with the LINK to secure prospective tenants or to develop those 90 acres for the port to use.
“Us having the 90 acres back gives us an opportunity to leave the door open again,” Sanders said. “It’s going to be an opportunity for us to work with the LINK in trying to recruit whatever type of business is the best fit.”
Higgins said that future developments at the port could take several shapes.
“We’ve been asking, ‘What does the port want to be when it grows up?’” Higgins said. “We’re looking at transloading and offloading facilities, we’re looking at construction and raw materials and warehousing. Now, I don’t know if we’ll do it, but we had a meeting (Tuesday) and the port board has another meeting on Monday. So, we hired Neel-Schaffer to come up with some conceptual designs for that meeting.”
Changing the resolution on LCPA’s purchase power
Lowndes County Board of Supervisors President Trip Hairston said with SDI no longer interested in buying the port property, supervisors will consider amending part of a resolution it passed in January requiring LCPA to obtain board approval on contract options longer than six months or deals involving more than $25,000.
“We plan to bring up the resolution at our next meeting (on Nov. 15),” Hairston said. “What I hope we will do, and I think the port would be in support of this, is to leave in place that there would be no land transactions without some sort of blessing from board supervisors.”
David A. Lipschitz, investor relations director at SDI, did not respond by press time to calls or emails seeking comment.
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