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Mississippi State Port Plans for Future
The Mississippi State Port at Gulfport has been an economic driver for the Gulf Coast for more than 100 years. Today, the Port is nearing capacity and growing quickly.
Master plans, developed by professional planners in the early 90s and updated every five years, have all advised a westward expansion. Peer reviews agree, citing such reasons as: the Port cannot expand east due to existing development, southerly expansion would present unnecessary operational difficulties and westward expansion better meets the operational needs of the modern ship and terminal operators.
Initial plans called for the expansion to take place over 20 years; however, Hurricane Katrina compressed that timeline into five years.
Plans call for relocating the Dole and Chiquita staging areas to the west terminal, allowing the Port to develop the north harbor area with non-maritime entities which follows suggestions provided by the Redevelopment Master Plan developed by the Mississippi Renewal Forum.
The Port expansion will add a new shipping channel, 105 acres of land and three new shipping berths, making the Port more competitive and attractive to new business. This is especially significant given the Panama Canal expansion, which will bring even more ship traffic into the Gulf of Mexico from Asia. This expansion will put Gulfport at the top of the consideration list.
The expansion will be funded by a $600 million grant provided by the Department of Housing and Urban Development as part of their Katrina Recovery Package. “These funds come at a critical time in the recovery of the port, but the rewards will be tremendous,” said Port Executive Director Don Allee.
Most importantly, projections show that the expansion will increase maritime-related jobs from 3,200 to 4,900 with payroll increasing from $96 million to $147 million. Business revenue is also projected to increase from $189 million to $207 million.
“It is vital that we grow strategically to protect our existing business and put us in a position to attract new business as well,” said Allee.