At first, it was only going to be a single rail line.
Local real estate agent Ryan Greene was helping Texas-based developer USA Rail Terminals find a suitable location for a rail spur. USA Rail has a client in Clinton that wanted a better way to ship its commodity into Texas.
“We started all the way down in Addis and worked our way north on potential properties, of which there were only a couple or three,” Steve Roth, executive vice president of USA Rail, tells Business Report in a feature from the current issue.
They used an agent to be discreet. But in the course of doing its research and talking to its contacts and to railroad customers in the region, Roth says his company discovered a “substantial need” for an entirely new rail terminal in the area.
“It was their vision of what could be here and their contacts in the industry” that allowed the company to recognize the need, Greene says.
After a search of about 18 months, USA Rail bought a 155-acre parcel just west of La. 1 between La. 415 and La. 986 in Port Allen. As envisioned, the facility will tie into an existing Union Pacific rail line and have the capacity to store more than 1,200 rail cars next door to what organizers hope will be a thriving industrial park.
The land deal closed late last December, and Roth says he’s shooting for late July or early August to complete the first of the three phases of the project. Phase one will require about $14.5 million of the anticipated $80 million investment.
It only takes a dozen or so people to run a rail yard, although eventually the Port Allen Rail Terminal is expected to employ 45 people. From an economic development perspective, the terminal’s potential as a shipping hub and industrial park anchor probably is more significant than the number of direct jobs it will provide. Baton Rouge Area Chamber President and CEO Adam Knapp calls the project a “double win” for the region that will provide employment and spur further development.
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