Hartford Business Journal

HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | JUNE 12, 2023 19 Tackling housing shortage New Haven's appeal as a port is projected to only grow when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers finishes a planned $63 million dredging project, a multiphase effort slated to start by October 2025. A deeper port is projected to generate $99 million in additional revenue, about 1,000 new jobs and $51 million more in wages and benefits, according to the Corps' economic analysis. The dredging, which will take New Haven Harbor's navigation channel from its current depth of 35 feet to 40 feet, will allow for larger vessels to bring in more product per voyage, and fewer overall trips. "It will be a much more efficient manner of getting the same amount of product into New Haven," Kruse said. Statistics on recent tonnage at the port aren't yet available, Kruse said, but she expects to see steady increases in volume of both imports and exports for the past year. Port occupants that have seen growth and increased demand include biofuel maker American Green Fuels and the main cargo operators. American Green Fuels secured approval from the city last year for a 1,400-square-foot addition and is expected to benefit from recent state laws requiring expanded use of biodiesel. The New Haven area's recent housing development boom has also helped fuel demand for the port's bulk cargo products, Kruse said. "The more we get in the way New York-based Criterion Group in January 2022 paid $21.4 million for several New Haven port district properties, including 100 Wheeler St., a 100,040-square-foot waterside industrial complex. PHOTO | COSTAR Gov. Ned Lamont, FullStack Modular President Roger Krulak, and state economic development director Alexandra Daum at FullStack's recent press conference announcing the company's move to Hamden. PHOTO | ROBIN BUCKLEY/RIVERSTONE IMAGES STUDIO of construction, the more activity there is," Kruse said. "We have a housing shortage, and that's one of the reasons it's so exciting to have FullStack Modular in the port." Weeks after FullStack's announce- ment, another construction-related company, Blueprint of Baltimore, announced it would open a major facility in Windsor. The company said it would use state-of-the-art engineering to both build its facility and produce housing components there using mass timber, a new method of creating thick, compressed layers of wood that can serve as load-bearing elements in construction. Although Blueprint officials didn't single out access to ports, they did cite the Windsor location for its "ease of distribution" and "support infrastructure" in announcing the construction of a new 450,000-square-foot plant to build wood-framed building components. Taking market share As New Haven's port continues to grow, Gateway Terminal, its main cargo operator, is seeking to expand, said Matthew Satnick, co-CEO of Enstruc- ture, Gateway's parent company. Based in Wellesley, Mass., Enstructure runs 20 terminals in nine states — making it the largest bulk and break- bulk terminal operator in the nation. The company also runs New London's port on contract with the state as a hub for offshore wind construction. Gateway Terminal's facilities in New Haven include a 750-foot finger pier, two docks and a 225-foot wharf, along with a tank farm with a capacity of 650,000 barrels of fuel. The company currently occupies 60 acres of land and is looking for more, Satnick said. "Whenever there's available, industrially-zoned property that's port-centric, we look at it very closely," Satick said. "The restriction is always land availability." Piles of scrap metal and de-icing salt take up lots of real estate at the port and need to turn over to make room for other cargo storage, he added. Demand for the New Haven port's main bulk cargo — concrete raw materials, fertilizer, salts, scrap steel and lumber — has been steady even with recent supply chain disruptions and economic swings, Satnick said. Demand for lumber, when used by specialty companies like FullStack Modular, doesn't necessarily track with macroeconomic trends, he added. "With FullStack, you're going to continue to take market share, even in a slower market," Satnick said. "You're going to have growth, which is why we're excited to welcome FullStack." Matthew Satnick

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