Small Town Tennessee
New Intermodal Port in Rural Northwest Tennessee Draws Interest from Top Corporations
By Mike Pigott
Construction of an intermodal Mississippi River port with significant national impact will begin soon in Northwest Tennessee, thanks to the more than 20-plus year effort of public-private partners who recently secured a $13 million federal grant.
The federal TIGER II transportation grant approved this fall represents the final piece needed by the Port of Cates Landing so that it can move ahead with creating a fully functional 9,000-foot channel port. The Northwest Tennessee Port Authority already has shepherded $33 million into the project - $5.6 million in local government investment, $5.5 million through various earlier federal sources, $500,000-plus in private funding and $3 million in state support.
The port initiative, which for years has drawn interest from large national and international corporations with shipping needs, is expected to provide an important shot in the arm for the entire region, and in particular the three investment-hungry counties at the northwest corner of the state – Lake, Dyer and Obion.
The new port is projected to produce 1,700 new permanent jobs and 234 part-time construction slots, according to studies conducted by the Middle Tennessee State University Business and Economic Research Center. The Center’s studies also showed that business revenues for the region will increase $355 million a year due to its presence.
The port’s supporters said the research work of MTSU’s Dr. Murat Arik and of Tennessee-based McNeely Pigott & Fox Public Relations, which wrote and packaged the TIGER grant proposal, were key to the project’s selection for federal funding.
Earlier studies by MTSU, the University of Memphis and private analysts have all shown that there would be a strong return on investment if the project became a reality.
The port will allow barge shipment of cargo to a port/warehouse facility on the 14-foot-deep dredged channel in Lake County, which is situated within a day’s drive of 75 percent of the nation’s major markets. It will offer an adjacent industrial park that is well above the 500-year flood plain, planners point out.
Much is already in place at Cates Landing, which has been in the planning and development stage by regional partners since the late 1980s. Lake, Dyer and Obion counties incorporated the Northwest Tennessee Regional Port Authority in March 2001 to operate the facility. Phase I of the port’s construction – primarily the dredging of the 9,000-foot harbor by the U.S. Corps of Engineers in December 2009 – is complete.
The recent successful effort to secure the TIGER II federal grant funding was greatly helped by guidance and backing from the Tennessee Department of Economic & Community Development and from the state Department of Transportation, port authority members said. Only $1 in every $30 in applications for TIGER grants was funded under the program as communities all over the nation battled for a piece of the available money.
The project site, consisting of 1,200 acres, including 350 acres of wetland mitigation lands, is acquired and ready for the construction to begin. All permits and mitigation properties are in place, the environmental analysis is complete, and the project is in compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act.
“This has truly been a regional team effort, and we are very happy that everyone’s hard work is about to pay off in the form of an economically advantageous port,” said District Congressman John Tanner, a longtime proponent. “This area has great, hardworking people and some natural resources that are unrivaled anywhere. This project will bring all these resources together in a nationally recognized way.”
This article is sponsored by the Tennessee Department of Economic & Community Development and TVA.