A deal in which a private contractor will invest hundreds of millions of dollars into the Helen Delich Bentley Port of Baltimore in return for a 50-year lease of Seagirt Marine Terminal received a strong endorsement Friday from the person who might be the most important arbiter of all:
Helen Delich Bentley.
The former congresswoman and "godmother" of the port was among those who gathered at Seagirt as Gov. Martin O'Malley announced a deal that would upgrade the terminal so that it can unload the super-sized containerships that are expected to become a growing sector of maritime commerce after a widened Panama Canal opens in 2014.
"It's a great deal," said Bentley, 85, a maritime industry consultant who added that she saw no downside to the contract. "It's a push forward for us. It comes at a very important time, a very critical time."
Bentley's assessment was echoed by national experts in the maritime trade, who called it a significant enhancement of Baltimore's ability to compete with other East Coast ports.
"It's a major event in the maritime industry. It's really kind of game-changing," said Aaron Ellis, communications director for the American Association of Port Authorities.
Under the deal, a local affiliate of the Ports America Group would invest an estimated $105 million to build a 50-foot-deep berth at Seagirt and equip it with four state-of-the-art cranes so the terminal can serve the mega-ships that are expected to bring cargoes from Asia through the canal and directly to the East Coast. In addition, Ports America is expected to invest up to $500 million in capital projects at the port over the 50-year term of the agreement.
The state, lacking the money to build such a facility itself, had spent the past year and a half looking for a private partner to make the capital investment it could not.
A jubilant O'Malley, backed by a lineup of longshoremen in blazingly colorful safety jackets, promoted the deal as a potent boost to Maryland's employment market.
"Jobs, jobs, jobs. This deal is all about job creation in Maryland and job creation now," he said. Over the next 50 years, he said, the deal is expected to yield $1.3 billion in economic activity at the port.
According to state officials, the agreement is expected to directly create 5,700 new jobs in Maryland, including 2,700 permanent jobs at the port and another 1,000 to build the expanded berth. Those jobs are unlikely to materialize immediately because the permanent jobs will likely be created after the berth's planned opening in 2014. Ports America officials estimated that construction would begin in 2011 or 2012.
