Veterans Terminal could soon be managed by private company

Image by Port of CharlestonImage by 20090203-port.jpg The terminal has some 110 acres of land.

It looks like the Port of Charleston's Veterans Terminal (map) could soon see new life under private management.

The State Ports Authority would still own the terminal, only it would be managed by a private company.

Read more stories on this subject in our port topic page. The facility does not handle the more common port traffic of large metal containers, and instead handles cars and breakbulk shipping (things like gravel and paper rolls)

FITSNews reports, in part:

In fact, Ports Authority officials were turning business away from Veterans Terminal to focus on bringing in additional container traffic, which represents over 90% of the global shipping market.

"SPA allowed (Veterans Terminal) to fall off the map,” said a source familiar with the pending deal. “Landlord-tenant is the only way to get it back up and running."

The only really surprising about the would-be deal is that it would the first port facility in South Carolina to fall under a public-private partnership agreement.

Head over to FITSNews for what's up.

Update February 3, 9:30 p.m.: I missed this story in The Post and Courier from December 24 that briefly discussed that the city of North Charleston was considering how it could take over the terminal.

That particular notion is a bit perplexing to me. I'm sure there's more at work here than is immediately obvious.

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