N.C. Ports and government agencies are looking at the feasibility of developing a piece of port property along the Cape Fear River to expand the port's business opportunities.

The site of the old Southern Wood Piedmont Co. in the 1500 block of South Front Street is in the process of going through the state’s brownfields program, which is part of the Division of Waste Management under the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality (NCDEQ).

A multi-agency meeting was held with N.C. Ports in March regarding the potential for the site's development and to share information about what could and could not be done with the property, according to officials with the state agency.

According to Laura Blair, vice president of administration and external affairs for N.C. Ports, the ports requested the scoping meeting on the site, which has been owned by the ports for a long time, to "look at the potential for development there."

Blair said the design submitted with the request for the scoping meeting is "a schematic of the potential of what could be on the property."

In that document, officials stated that "the purpose of the proposed new docking pier with land bridges, new cargo shed, and general cargo area on the proposed site will allow cargo to be dedicated to the new site and allow for expanded business opportunities that would help the Port better serve the people, industries, and agribusiness of North Carolina. The development of a general cargo area would also place the Port in a competitive position to handle new commodities that require open storage."

Container volume and movement through the port has increased, and open storage areas once used for general cargo have diminished, the document stated. That storage space at the port is "almost fully utilized," according to the meeting request.

N.C. Ports cited its ongoing infrastructure improvements, turning basin and addition of new cranes as contributing to major growth at the Port of Wilmington.

Two neo-Panamax cranes arrived at the port and were installed this month, allowing for the Port of Wilmington to service bigger ships.

And in March, N.C. Ports reported that container volume is up 31 percent in fiscal year 2018, and the volume in January and February was up 58 percent, according to a N.C. Ports news release. Throughput capacity at the Port of Wilmington was up at more than 200,000 Twenty-foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) during the first eight months of the Port’s fiscal year, which began in July.

The site's potential redevelopment would enable the port to more efficiently utilize the property for "its intended industrial use of maritime cargo movement," according to the NCDEQ document. 

"The proposed project is the best use for the property because it allows the NCSPA to adjust to growth of container throughput, handle and transport cargo more efficiently, and utilize the property for its intended purposes," officials stated.

The estimated economic impact of a potential redevelopment project at the site could be more than $50 million, according to the document.

The site's potential redevelopment was granted entry into the brownfields program in July 2017. Half of the site, 44.22 acres in the northern portion of the parcel, was eligible for entry into the brownfields program and is undergoing assessment and evaluation for a possible brownfields agreement.

The site was once used by Southern Wood Piedmont Co., which had a long-term lease on the property that spanned from the early 1930s until operations ceased there in June 1983. The northern leased parcel was operated as a wood treatment facility, according to May 2017 documents about the site. The southern portion of the site was used for storing treated wooden poles.

Authorized by the state statute known as the Brownfields Property Reuse Act, the state brownfields program "provides a mechanism to treat prospective developers of brownfield sites differently than the parties responsible for contaminating them," according to the program's website.

A brownfields site is an abandoned, idled or underused property where the threat of environmental contamination has hindered its redevelopment. A developer has to go through certain processes to gain a site's entry into the program and enters into an agreement with the state to move forward with development. Tax incentives are also offered for brownfield site developments that go through and are agreed upon in the state program.

Once a brownfields agreement is reached for a site, there is no time limit on the site's development, according to NCDEQ.

The Pharmaceutical Product Development (PPD) headquarters site in downtown Wilmington is highlighted as a success of the program, for its development of 8 acres of a brownfield tract along the Cape Fear River.

Correction: This version corrects the spelling of Laura Blair's name.