Avondale Marine LLC has bought the Avondale Shipyard site in Jefferson Parish and plans to turn it into a global logistics hub, Gov. John Bel Edwards announced today.
Avondale Marine, a joint venture of Virginia-based T. Parker Host and Illinois-based Hilco Redevelopment Partners, acquired the 254-acre property from Huntington Ingalls Industries Wednesday and plans to redevelop the site’s crane, dock and terminal assets along nearly 8,000 feet of Mississippi River frontage. The site will connect waterborne commerce with manufacturing, fabrication and distribution facilities onshore.
Once Louisiana’s largest private employer, the shipyard employed 7,500 people at the beginning of the 1980s. Avondale later turned to defense-related shipbuilding, a business that also began dwindling in the 1990s as the U.S. Navy reduced its fleet size following the end of the Cold War. Northrop Grumman acquired Avondale in the 2000 purchase of Litton Industries, spinning off its shipbuilding business as Huntington Ingalls Industries in 2011. That led to the closure of Avondale Shipyards in 2014.
Hilco Redevelopment Partners has repurposed other large-scale industrial properties across North America and identified Avondale as a potential redevelopment site several years ago, according to the announcement. Financial terms of Wednesday’s sale were not disclosed.
With 31% of all waterborne commerce in the U.S. passing through the lower Mississippi River, Louisiana’s water transportation and support services sector contributes to 83,300 jobs in the state, with total payroll income of $5.5 billion and annual economic output of $20.9 billion, according to a February 2018 study commissioned by the Offshore Marine Service Association and the Louisiana Association of Waterway Operators and Shipyards.
The redevelopment of the Avondale Shipyards site will contribute to that sector while adding value through new manufacturing, fabrication and distribution operations, according to Edwards’ announcement.
