A deal between two companies with very visible roles in the Panhandle is being touted as a potential spark for the shipping port at Port St. Joe in Florida, USA.
A letter-of-intent agreement between Green Circle Bio Energy Inc. and the St. Joe Co. is expected to result in a new plant and a possible dredging project at the port. The agreement would allow Green Circle to develop a plant on property owned by St. Joe.
The port, with the new deal in place is, is now expected to move forward with grant proposals to dredge the channel improving access to the port, according to Leonard Costin, chairman of the Port St. Joe Port Authority.
“A viable business is ready to use the port and rail access to the port site is being improved; the missing link to an operational port is the necessary dredging improvements to the shipping channel,” Park Brady, CEO for the St. Joe Co., wrote in a release.
The Port of Port St. Joe offers a deepwater seaport with two separate bulkheads, one with nearly 1,900 linear feet at the ship channel turning basin and the other with nearly 900 linear feet on the Gulf County Canal.
The St. Joe Co. is a real estate developer and manager which owns approximately 567,000 acres of land concentrated primarily inNorthwest Florida. Green Circle’s wood pellet plant in Cottondale is the second largest in the world boasting an annual production capacity of 660,000 tonnes.