Green Bay, Brown County optimistic about chances coal piles will move as White House official tours site
GREEN BAY - The Port of Green Bay applied for a $25 million federal grant to cover higher-than-expected costs to build a new port facility, a project key to ongoing community efforts to relocate the coal piles out of the central city.
The port in February applied for a U.S. Department of Transportation RAISE Discretionary Grant to close a budget gap in a plan to develop a new multipurpose port facility on the former Pulliam Power Plant site at the mouth of the Fox River. Cost estimates last fall showed improvements and infrastructure work on the site would cost about $48.7 million, about $19 million more than originally expected.
The RAISE grant program has about $1.5 billion to award in 2024.
Port Director Dean Haen said the community's application included letters of support from 40 businesses, legislators and Gov. Tony Evers that "make our case why it's very important to Green Bay." He said the grant is necessary to ensure construction starts in 2025 on the new port facility along the west shore at the mouth of the Fox River.
Senior aide to President Joe Biden tours Green Bay coal piles site
The port won't find out until summer whether it receives the grant, but a senior White House official toured the coal piles site during a visit to Green Bay on Thursday, giving local officials the opportunity to drive the point home that the city, county, and C. Reiss Coal Co. are "all aligned," said Green Bay Mayor Eric Genrich.
The tour, as much as the guest of honor, carried some import in itself — It was the first time C. Reiss Coal Co. representatives joined city of Green Bay and Brown County officials to tour the site and publicly discuss the relocation since the community first identified an opportunity to relocate the coal yard in 2021.
Keith Haselhoff, CEO of C. Reiss Coal Co., met with senior adviser to President Joe Biden and Director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs Tom Perez, Genrich, Haen and other city and county officials. Perez also toured City East Center, a city- and state-funded affordable housing development and new home of the Brown County United Way.
Perez said the collaborative work of the city, county, business community, and C. Reiss Coal is often a key to securing grants, though he personally does not judge any applications.
"I see potential, remarkable potential," Perez said after touring the C. Reiss site. "There's obviously leadership here."
'We're optimistic this can be a success'
Haselhoff said C. Reiss continues to take its cues from the city and county as they pursue the money necessary to pull off the port expansion, relocation of C. Reiss and redevelopment of the coal yard site. But he said the company is optimistic at this point and continues to discuss its operational needs with the community partners.
"We're optimistic this can be a success," Haselhoff said. "New beginnings are always exciting."
The company has not said much publicly, but that does not mean it hasn't been closely involved, Genrich said. He called the company a "constructive partner" since the county and city got serious.
"They've never said, 'No, we're not interested,'" Genrich said. "They've been at the table figuring out how to make it work for themselves and the community."
Brown County Executive Troy Streckenbach said the community and company efforts to date have positioned the region to, after 25 years of talks, "reimagine what the next 100 years will look like" for the riverfront site.
After 4 years of work, Green Bay, Brown County, C. Reiss have community close to plan to relocate coal piles
Brown County in 2021 paid $2.7 million to Wisconsin Public Service Corp. for the former J.P. Pulliam power plant site. WPS generated electricity on the 43.7-acre site from 1927 until 2018 when WPS shut down the two coal-fired power plants and began demolishing them.
The county saw the property as an opportunity to expand port operations in an industrial area of Green Bay on a site with room to relocate the coal piles, a goal community leaders have pursued for decades now. The riverfront site has been a coal yard since 1900, C. Reiss officials said.
Genrich has called the relocation a "once-in-a-city's-lifetime" transformation of the community's waterfront.
But first, the port expansion site needs a lot of costly work and port officials have so far secured about $30.8 million in funding:
$15 million in American Rescue Plan Act dollars via Gov. Tony Evers.
$10.1 million federal Port Infrastructure Development Program Grant.
$500,000 Idle Sites Grant from Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. to help buy the property.
$3.2 million in Brown County American Rescue Plan Act dollars.
$2.1 million in WisDOT Harbor Assistance Grants.
The funding and engineering work to design the port expansion enabled the community to accelerate discussions with C. Reiss Coal Co. about relocating the coal piles.
What's the Port of Green Bay expansion project?
The site needs improvements and upgrades on land and in the Fox River in order to potentially facilitate a variety of maritime deliveries and pickups. This site would be publicly owned in contrast to the 14 current port terminals that are privately owned and operated. The new port facility on its own could bolster the port's economic impact by as much as $87 million.
A major component of the project would involve dredging along the site and installation of a steel dock wall to enable ships to dock at the site. Construction plans include:
Dredge the Fox River along the site and install a steel dock wall to enable ships to access the site.
Construct a rail spur.
Fill in the docking slip on the Pulliam site.
Build a stormwater detention basin.
Add mooring facilities and crane pads for port operations.
Repair the sea wall.
While some road and infrastructure construction could start still this year, Haen said the community needs to win a RAISE Grant if it wants to start construction on the port-specific improvements in 2025.
Coal piles site could become housing, port site and ... Green Bay's Amtrak station?
City and county officials envision a port/industrial operation, housing and, possibly, an Amtrak station on the coal piles current site. The overall goal would be to activate the riverfront and develop a mix of uses that complements the Shipyard Redevelopment Area housing and recreational amenities coming together just north of the Mason Street bridge.
The northern 10 acres of the site, closest to Mason Street, would be marketed to housing developers.
The southern 20-plus acres would be used to create a new port site to facilitate some industrial uses in order to further bolster the port's current $217 million economic impact.
And with northeastern Wisconsin being awarded $500,000 to study passenger rail expansion from Milwaukee north to Green Bay, Genrich also pitched the coal piles site as a potential location for a new Amtrak terminal. He touted the site as well-located between downtown Green Bay and the rapidly developing Lambeau Field stadium and entertainment district.
"(A train station) can a lot of times be a pretty catalytic presence. We'd love to have a station located here as well," Genrich said.
Contact Jeff Bollier at (920) 431-8387 or jbollier@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JeffBollier.
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: White House official tours coal piles; Port of Green Bay seeks $25M grant
