Yazoo County leaders will meet with representatives from a local industry desiring to enter a long-term lease at the local port for exclusive use with major capital improvements.
For several years, a long-term lease with CF Industries has been agreed upon with the Yazoo County Board of Supervisors. Stemming back from Terra Industries to the Mississippi Chemical Corporation, the lease agreement has a long history with the county board. And the 25-year lease appears again before the county board.
Barry Bridgforth, board attorney for the Yazoo Port Commission, appeared before the county board to finalize the lease. The lease was originally approved by the previous county board.
“The land at the port has been unused for years,” Bridgforth said. “It has been under lease with CF. Prior to that, it was Terra and Mississippi Chemical. Nobody is using it. In fact, before my time, they had a fertilizer A-frame building. They took that building down. Now, CF has been trucking all their fertilizer to the port in Vicksburg. They are fixing to ramp it up and start using this port, which would be great news for us as far as industry goes.”
Bridgforth said the lease agreement includes exclusive usage by CF Industries. It is a 25-year lease with five-to-ten-year renewals.
“And they are going to spend a significant amount of capital on it,” he added.
“The only thing I have a question about is the exclusive part,” replied Supervisor Joseph Thomas Jr. “Somebody else might say, ‘I want to use it.”
Bridgforth said the lease is exclusive.
“I have been the port attorney for close to 20 years, and nobody has used it,” Bridgforth said. “The problem is the river is too high, and you can’t get under the bridge at Satartia. Or, it is too low, and they can’t use it. But they have figured it out. They have figured out it is more economical for them to ship on that river than to truck it all the way to Vicksburg. But you will have to exclusively lease this to CF.”
Bridgforth added that CF Industries will also be making a large capital investment.
“It needs a bunch of work,” he said. “But they are going to spend high in the mid-seven figures on this.”
“I didn’t like the exclusive part either,” added Supervisor Lee Moore. “But if nobody has used it in that long, and they willing to come in and spend that kind of money…”
The county board requested that a representative from CF Industries appear before them to share its long-term plan.
