Will create a dream site for future development
The Port of Vicksburg has long been one of the biggest economic engines of Warren County and a major asset to the Delta and Mississippi. The current port is not directly on the river, but on the Yazoo Diversion Canal about 1.5 to three miles inland. The port hasn’t been expanded since the 1980s, and currently is full with no room to grow.
“As a community, we came together to analyze the potential for a port expansion,” said Pablo Diaz, President and CEO, Vicksburg-Warren Partnership. “If you are a regional city, and don’t have the space for development, you have to develop it. To say you are out of land, out of growth potential, isn’t acceptable.”
Now, due to cooperative efforts among the Vicksburg-Warren Partnership, the Port of Vicksburg, the City of Vicksburg and state partners, a port expansion on the Mississippi River will open 1,200 acres for development with a new harbor 3,000 feet long and 900 feet wide that will maintain a depth of 25 feet even during historic lows of the Mississippi River.
“From the time the project was envisioned starting in 2018 until today, Gov. Tate Reeves, the Mississippi Legislature and the Mississippi Development Authority have all been very supportive,” said Diaz. “It is a process bringing multiple stakeholders together. All of these different entities and people understand there are great opportunities for not just the city and region, but the entire state. We will be marketing to companies identified in a market analysis as the type of industries that will probably be looking for this kind of site.”
The world has changed considerably since 2018, and in ways that will likely make the port expansion even more attractive. Diaz said Covid exposed difficulties with relying too much on foreign supply chains, and that has led to more companies investing in domestic projects. The disruption caused by the war in Ukraine also enhanced interest in investment in American facilities.
There has been a wave in the past few years of reshoring—bringing more manufacturing and other businesses back to the U.S. because of opportunities in the market.
“Logistic assumptions were upended by Covid and Ukraine,” said Diaz. “Those international events have made opportunities better for Mississippi and our country. We feel good about it. Our port expansion has a great chance of creating really outstanding projects for Mississippi. We are now in the final phases of design for the main elements of the project. We expect to be done with design phase by the end of October. Then, we will move on to remediation of wetlands and the construction. Our remediation strategy consists of buying wetlands’ credits and also creating our own replacement wetlands.”
Diaz points to economies of scale that will come into play. Another huge benefit from the expansion is providing companies with strategic advantages that don’t currently exist, such as shorter transit times for shipping and access to four-lane Highway 61 only four miles from Interstate 20.
“The development has all the transportation infrastructure needed,” said Diaz. “That is a big deal for bringing trucks in and out. It is also served by natural gas pipelines, affordable electric service, and water and sewer. It is served by the Class One CPKC rail line. Pretty much everything you could dream of regarding infrastructure is at this site. That is the reason we selected it.”
The City of Vicksburg and Warren County each provided half the cost of purchasing 1,775 acres consisting of 332 parcels purchased from 16 owners. That process alone took ten months. Another major step was receiving a preferred permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers this year, which Diaz said was very critical to the project.
As soon as the design is complete, efforts will begin to heavily market the property. Diaz said the exact opening date depends on a lot of factors; they don’t want to overpromise and under deliver.
Back in 2018 when discussions first started with the city and county, a national firm was hired to do a feasibility study to determine which industries might be interested in locating at the new port. The report indicated there are good prospects for wood companies, steel, tire and electric vehicle manufacturing and, of course, grain transportation and logistics. The market analysis indicated strong prospects for creating jobs and economic development for the community.
“My community is taking advantage of the assets they have and turning that into potential,” said Diaz. “We have to set the stage for things to be able to occur. Every community should be working on reaching the highest level of success they can. That is a process of planning with a realistic view of who you are and what you can accomplish. If all you want to do is imitate another community, you probably won’t get there. Decide who you are, what assets you have and develop a plan for your community.”
Vicksburg benefits from a diverse economic base. It is about 12% to 13% manufacturing and 12% to 15% high tech because of presence of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which has two major facilities, including the national headquarters for the Engineering Research and Design Center (ERDC) and the Vicksburg District, one of the Corps’ largest civil works districts in both size and activities.
This year, the Thad Cochran Mississippi Center for Innovation Technology opened in Vicksburg on the Mississippi River offering 50,000-square feet of tech transfer offices including for ERDCWERZ, a platform for ERDC to collaborate with innovators in industry, academia and other sectors to solve complex technical challenges. The center was built in the three-story Mississippi Hardware Building originally constructed in 1936. The project includes an entrepreneurial center, a state technology transfer center, a science, technology, engineering, mathematics (STEM) education center and a workforce development center for STEM support training and internship.
“It is a gorgeous building,” said Diaz, whose offices are located there. “ERDCWERZ, the Chamber of Commerce and the port will have offices on the first floor along with Hinds Community College, which will be providing first generation tech training and virtual reality. Alcorn State University, Mississippi State University, Jackson State University, Southern Mississippi and Ole Miss also all have a presence there on the second floor. That allows all the research universities to have a presence in the city with the ability to coordinate activities with ERDC and have a collaborative space to take it to the next level.”
Diaz said putting together complex partnerships to implement economic development plans are of huge importance to the success of communities. All the municipalities and government entities in a county need to make decisions together.
“I encourage people to make sure you work with your elected officials to keep everyone together as they move forward with plans,” said Diaz. “If they stay united, they will progress; if there is fighting or infighting, they will see stagnation.”