Malheur County officials negotiating the sale of the Treasure Valley Reload Center to a national railroad company are bringing in a consulting firm to help oversee the remaining work that needs to be completed by June to close the deal.
Since December, leaders of the Malheur County Development Corp., the public company established to oversee the construction of the rail center, have been in negotiations to sell the project and the county’s undeveloped industrial park to Jaguar Transportation Holdings, a Missouri company.
The county’s development company is required under an agreement with Union Pacific Railroad to complete rail spurs at the site. According to a map Shawna Peterson, the county development company executive director, about 5,500 feet of track still need to be constructed.
Peterson told the MCDC board on Tuesday, Feb. 18, that she needed help from Axiom, a Boise firm, to oversee the remaining work. The board unanimously approved a contract for up to four months that will pay Axiom about $18,000 per month to help manage the final track construction.
To pay for that contract, MCDC will request $80,000 from the Oregon Department of Transportation. The board retained the option of opting out of the contract after one month if Axiom isn’t needed.
Peterson said MCDC would likely need Axiom’s services for the duration of the contract. She said she appreciated the board’s “pragmatic approach.”
Work on the two rail spurs was interrupted in 2023 when the Oregon Department of Transportation froze additional funding for the project after Americold, the multinational company signed onto to operate the rail center, bailed, stating the project was not “financially viable.” In December 2023, the lead engineering firm, Anderson Perry, was terminated. The La Grande firm had been involved in the project from the start, doing early design work in 2017 and oversaw construction for six years. Another company, RailPros, handled the rail design work.
Peterson told the board she needed Axiom’s assistance to complete the remaining work on the project. Before, she said, Anderson Perry. The firm was paid $1.9 million for its work.
Peterson told the board while the contractor RailPros has been “responsive,” she needs “expertise” on less significant items, such as permitting. This, she said, will add “tremendous value.”
Axiom proposed spending the first month to establish what work remains to be done, what that would cost, and propose a schedule.
The following months will involve managing other contractors during the construction.
Peterson, who is paid about $10,000 per month through the county to manage the project, said when she came on as executive director in March 2023, that she did not get a summary of what still needed to be completed from Anderson Perry before they left the project.
“Written confirmation” over the years about what work needed to be completed has been “elusive,” she said.
Peterson said Axiom and RailPros have both told her that the remaining work can be completed in time for the sale closing date of June 30. She said the material to complete the project could take four weeks to arrive.
She told the board members that the remaining work could cost over $1 million. Currently, the state holds $8 million set aside for finishing the reload center.
The sale of the project could bring to an end a decade of work at public expense to turn farmland just outside Nyssa into an industrial complex.
While no figure about how much the reload center and industrial park could sell for, the project so far has consumed more than $30 million in public funds.
The project was originally designed to ship Treasure Valley onions.
The public project is about two miles north of Nyssa, west of the Union Pacific Railroad line serving Nyssa. Dubbed the Arcadia Industrial Park, the bare land with no services was the foundation for the Treasure Valley Reload Center and an adjacent industrial park. MCDC now owns 65 acres while Malheur County owns the remaining 230 acres.
The rail center project began in 2017. Funded by the Legislature, the project originally budgeted for $26 million ran far over budget under the management until 2023 of Greg Smith, a Heppner consultant who is a Republican legislator.
PREVIOUS COVERAGE
Railroad company considers buying Treasure Valley Reload Center, county industrial park
National railroad, county, continue talks to sell reload center, industrial park
Nyssa rail center leaders bringing in new – but familiar – consultant
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MCDC board member reports that shipping onions out of Nyssa rail center won’t work
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