(The following story by David Patch appeared on the Toledo Blade website on April 24.)
TOLEDO, Ohio — If Midwest Terminals, Inc., is to become a general cargo dock operator at the Port of Toledo, it apparently won’t do so by expanding the 14 acres it currently subleases from CSX Transportation to operate a stone terminal.
CSX issued a statement yesterday announcing that it had declined Midwest’s request for an amendment of the sublease.
“Such an agreement would limit our development opportunities for the land, and that’s something we don’t want to do at this time,” company spokesman David Hall said in the statement.
Alex Johnson, Midwest Terminals’ president, could not be reached for a reaction.
The Midwest site is part of a 500-acre coal dock property that CSX and its corporate predecessor have leased long-term from the port authority since 1964.
Late in 2000, the port authority allowed CSX to sublease an inactive portion of the coal dock property to Midwest, which since then has handled inbound shipments of railroad ballast stone delivered by boat from Ontario. The agreement also allowed Midwest to develop an asphalt terminal there, although so far the firm has not done so.
At Midwest’s request, the port authority granted permission on Thursday for the company to expand its operations into other commodities, potentially including metals, lumber, containerized freight, and automobiles. But CSX’s permission was also needed, and CSX’s coal-dock lease continues through 2019, with options through 2029.
The Midwest proposal was decried by Toledo World Industries, the port’s current primary stevedore, which said there is insufficient business to sustain competing general cargo docks. TWI, formerly owned by the Maumee-based S.E. Johnson construction materials and contracting conglomerate, has been for sale since last year, when Johnson was bought out by Oldcastle Materials, Inc.
Gerken Materials of Napoleon, a Johnson competitor, owns Midwest Terminals. It has not been disclosed whether Gerken is a bidder for TWI.