Port NOLA, The Kearney Companies Agree on 10-Year Consolidated Lease
Written by Marybeth Luczak, Executive Editor
(Port NOLA Photograph)
The Port of New Orleans (Port NOLA) on April 9 reported a new 10-year lease arrangement with site development firm The Kearney Companies, Inc., which it called a “milestone” in the longstanding relationship between Port NOLA, The Kearney Companies, and New Orleans Public Belt (NOPB), which provides rail service to its facilities and a connection to all six Class I railroads.
The new agreement will allow The Kearney Companies, a subsidiary of Precision Terminal Logistics (PTL), “to grow and invest with properties that have been continually leased for the last 20 years,” according to Port NOLA. The leased facilities include four rail-served transit sheds located on France Road and a rail-served storage facility at 3900 Jourdan Road, which The Kearney Companies originally leased and refurbished in 2016.
As a requirement in the new lease, The Kearney Companies has committed to making capital investments through Port NOLA-approved facility upfits and improvements, according to the Port, which noted that the “shared commitment” to investing in Port NOLA’s infrastructure will ensure that these facilities “can service existing customer needs well into the future, while also supporting cargo growth and fostering continued job creation in the region.”
The Kearney Companies’ operations with Class III NOPB are said to have reached 3,000 carloads per year. Additionally, the company handles close to 20,000 twenty-foot equivalent units annually and supports approximately 65 full-time jobs across various roles, including office/clerical, trucking, and warehouse workers, according to Port NOLA.
“Our longstanding partnership with The Kearney Companies is a prime example of how Port NOLA delivers seamless, integrated logistics solutions between river, rail and road,” said Brandy D. Christian, President and CEO of Port NOLA and CEO of NOPB. “We appreciate the continued commitment of The Kearney Companies and PTL and look forward to strengthening our partnership in future endeavors.”
“The real success of this partnership with Port NOLA,” said David Kearney, President of The Kearney Companies, “is measured in terms of the competitive advantages we enable for each specific shipper’s supply chain and the sustainable jobs that we create in this process of using these terminals to support these customers’ various logistical needs. It feels great when you look back over the last 20 years and you see the growth in new customers that these facilities support. We have continually invested in our service capabilities and logistics capacity to facilitate cargo growth for Port NOLA and the NOPB. With the consolidated lease, we look forward to continuing to invest in these facilities so we can support our customers well into the future.”
