Philly port seeks to boost capacity as it eyes $90 million land deal with Norfolk Southern
PhilaPort says buying 152 acres on the site of the old Philadelphia Navy Base would help create thousands of jobs.
The state agency that owns Philadelphia’s seaport facilities is moving toward buying 152 acres from Norfolk Southern Corp. for $90 million, an acquisition that officials have said could help generate thousands of jobs.
The Philadelphia Regional Port Authority’s board voted Wednesday to authorize the agency’s staff to enter into agreements with the railroad for land on the site of the old Philadelphia Navy Base.
Port authority documents say the location of the site — adjacent to the Packer Avenue Marine Terminal and Southport Auto Terminal in South Philly — “provides the port significant opportunity to develop land” to expand the port’s capacity to handle shipping containers and automobiles.
“Land acquisition is and continues to be the cornerstone and an utmost priority for PhilaPort in its expansion efforts along the Delaware River to create jobs and serve as an economic driver for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,” staff wrote in a memo prepared for Wednesday’s board meeting.
The land, known as the Mustin Yard, includes an intermodal rail facility “with potential expansion alternatives that could assist connectivity between the port and major distribution and consumption locations throughout the United States,” according to port authority documents.
» READ MORE: Philly’s seaport is in talks to buy 150 acres from Norfolk Southern as it eyes a big expansion
The port authority, which calls itself PhilaPort, expects to close on the deal in the fall, spokesperson Ryan Mulvey said. He said it has received a funding commitment from the state to buy the land. The state typically finances such investments through borrowing.
The $90 million purchase price is consistent with the site’s appraised value, according to PhilaPort.
Mulvey told The Inquirer last year that PhilaPort’s consultants found that in a scenario in which the yard is developed into a container terminal, that could create 15,000 jobs — more than doubling the 12,000 direct and indirect jobs currently supported by the port authority’s operations.
However, he said, the economic impact would depend on the type of cargoes handled at the site and the amount of capital investment.
Acquiring new land is a key priority for PhilaPort because the authority’s consultants have forecast that container cargo will grow to 1.6 million units by 2040 — almost double last year’s volume — and demand could exceed the port’s existing capacity in the next few years.
The Mustin Yard was previously owned by the Delaware River Port Authority, a bistate agency, after the Navy left in 1996. The DRPA conveyed the land to Norfolk Southern in 2008, property records show.