Port Authority

[icejammer]

Supervisors select firm to study port authority

The Pottawattamie County Board of Supervisors selected an Omaha firm to study the feasibility of developing a port authority north of Council Bluffs.

Kirkham Michael was selected as the consulting firm to head the Gateway Commerce Port Authority Economic Feasibility Study. The study will determine whether or not a port authority project on the Missouri River is plausible.

Pottawattamie County, Douglas County, Council Bluffs, Omaha and the Metropolitan Area Planning Agency are all involved in the project.

A $100,000 federal grant has been received to fund a feasibility study of an inland port authority, where the multiple jurisdictions work together for improved economic development. A second $100,000 grant, this one from the Iowa West Foundation, will also help pay for the study.

Jake Hansen, MAPA community and economic development planner, said the study would determine if the area could support a small- or large-scale industrial development.

“It is a unique proposal,” he said. “A port authority is a regional economic development plan that will not burden one government body with all of the load.” . . .

[Jwunderlich]

So i know i probably look like a uneducated hillbilly asking this but what is a Port Authority I googled  and came up with this but i was wondering which aplies to us.

Would this mean the would put in a river marina or just a facilty to govern the shipping of products.



is a company, government body or organization that owns or controls the land and activities at a sea port.


A government agency involved in administering real estate, infrastructure, or both as a multimodalway authority. (For purposes of this project, port authorities will restrict themselves to distribution infrastructures).


A government body (city, county or state) which in international shipping maintains various airports and/or ocean cargo pier facilities, transit sheds, loading equipment warehouses for air cargo, etc. Has the power to levy dockage and wharfage charges, landing fees, etc.

[omaja]

It sounds like the second definition from your list.  Must just be an easy way of enacting a bi-state cooperative agreement?

[icejammer]

Port Authority: It’s a big price tag for development

More than a year after hiring an Omaha firm to study the feasibility of developing a port authority north of Council Bluffs, the Pottawattamie County Board of Supervisors received the initial report – and potentially hefty price tag – Wednesday.

If a port authority were developed on 2,200 acres of land across the Missouri River from Eppley Airport, between Interstate 29 and south of Interstate 680, the cost would approach $1.5 billion over three decades.

But the port authority could also bring 22,000 jobs to the area over that same time period. . . .

“The sole purpose for the port authority would be to own and develop property that is shovel ready,” Foutch said. “Their only mission would be to market and bring in industry to the site.”

Foutch said the outlook for space in the metropolitan area over the next 30 years is better than in the U.S. overall, and the $1.5 billion spent could leverage an additional $2.5 billion in investment.

However, profitability on the project – if it started now, which is a big if – would not be seen until 2027, and until that point the project would need to be supported by a funding source.

In addition, there are concerns of flooding on the land looked at in the study. Foutch said most businesses would not want to be located near a levee, so two options would exist: Find another site or spend $180 million hauling in 10-feet of fill to the site. . . .

And it would be a partnership that might not be legally possible because of differing state laws between the entities investigating the port authority. . . .

Hansen said the project would certainly benefit both states. A proposed new bridge to connect northeast Omaha would be part of the project. . . .