According to Port Authority deputy executive director Bill Baroni, “Our vision includes expanding the port beyond its current boundaries, finding a cost-effective solution to the clearance issue at the Bayonne Bridge and developing the underused Greenville Yards to remove trucks from New Jersey highways.” Last month, in fact, the Port Authority’s Board of Commissioners authorized the agency to move ahead with the purchase and redevelopment of Greenville Yards, a century-old rail yard in Jersey City. The facility will serve as the lynchpin to removing up to 360,000 trash trucks annually from trans-Hudson crossings and New Jersey highways by moving New York City’s sealed containerized solid waste and other commodities by barge and rail when the facility is opened in 2013. However, the Port Authority is still grappling with the Bayonne Bridge. Though the agency did recently fast track a an environmental study to find a way to allow large container ships to pass under the Bayonne Bridge. The Port Authority is considering various options to allow the newer container ships to pass under the bridge, including modifying the existing bridge by jacking up the current 151-foot road deck, creating a lift-bridge mechanism at the center of the span, or building a new taller bridge or a tunnel under the river.

Under the Global agreement, the Port Authority takes over ownership of the property and, in turn, reaches a 37-year lease agreement with Global under which the terminal operator will develop the former Northeast Auto Terminal property into one new container terminal known as the Global Container Terminal. Global, which is owned by the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan, will then handle the day-to-day cargo operation on the much larger footprint. The lease agreement calls for revenue sharing on containers handled by Global on the 170-acre combined facility and staged rental payments as the terminal is developed over time. In addition, the Port Authority will provide Global with up to $150 million to develop and construct new container terminal space. The Port Authority also has agreed to develop a rail facility on the adjacent Greenville property that could handle up to 250,000 containers per year. In addition, the New Jersey Turnpike is redesigning the 14A interchange to handle projected port traffic as the Global terminal expands over time.

Global currently employs approximately 350 workers at its existing terminal. It is still undetermined how many workers will be hired to operate the additional cargo container space.