A year ago it had seemed the hustle and bustle of Bridgeport”™s shipyard was about to return. A new shipyard operator was settling in, more than 100 new jobs were on the horizon and the local marine industry was anticipating an economic boom.
J. Goodison, a marine maintenance and repair company, had big plans for the shipyard. It had been vacant for months after luxury boat manufacturer Derecktor Shipyard declared bankruptcy and stopped paying rent.
“We”™re being flooded with phone calls from fishermen, ferry boat companies in Connecticut and New York, hub and barge operators,” CEO Jack Goodison told the Business Journal November 2012. “You put it all together ”” the deepwater access, proximity to New York, size of the property ”” it”™s a recipe for success.”
Fast forward a year, J. Goodison and much of the yard”™s equipment is gone. After investing roughly $300,000 in the property, Goodison said he and officials from the city and port authority were unable to reach a long-term lease agreement.
In the summer of 2012, the Bridgeport Port Authority selected J. Goodison as the preferred tenant in response to a formal request for proposals on the site. Donald Eversley, Bridgeport”™s former economic development director, had spent about four years recruiting Goodison, citing the shipyard as possessing the potential to be the most successful in the whole Northeast as more places went out of business.
In response to the RFP, Goodison offered to pay $8,000 per month for 10 acres and later increased the offer to $11,400 per month, he said. But after some 10 months of negotiating, the port authority, as Goodison put it, “dropped the deal,” requesting “several times that much” for considerably less acreage.
“When a deal has changed on you so dramatically you don”™t even recognize it, it”™s hard to believe the other party is operating on the same plane as you,” Goodison said, mentioning he felt there was a “prettier girl in the room” he didn”™t know of. “The rent they were looking for was so unrealistic that I can”™t see anyone setting up a (shipyard) business model to support it.”
Goodison said his offer is reflective of shipyard industry rates. However, Bill Coleman, Bridgeport”™s director of neighborhood development, said the city has reason to believe the site is more valuable.
A recent appraisal pegged the land worth $87,120 per acre, or $2 per square foot. Goodison”™s offer, by these terms, was 1/10th its appraised value, Coleman said. Coleman was a part of the negotiation process with Goodison and responded to the Business Journal”™s request for comment. He spoke on behalf of the Bridgeport Port Authority.
“What (some) are really asserting is that the Goodison offer is simply the best there is to be had from the industry and we ought to have grabbed it and locked it down for 30 years,” Coleman said in an email. “We are not at all convinced of that. We have received offers, both from within and without the industry, that indicate there is more market upside for us than what we would have achieved per the Goodison proposal. Time will tell whether our judgment of the market is right.”
Coleman said the city continues to work with the state on marketing the site and has received inquiries from a broad geographic area. Coleman cautioned to say an RFP is not like a bid award, where the price is locked in and is the only consideration ”” something Goodison may be more used to. The city and port authority had proceeded with Goodison as a frontrunner from the RFP but “the port authority was not obligated to accept,” Coleman said.
Coleman said the city”™s vision for the shipyard hasn”™t changed. It still wants it used for marine-related services. But the property is a diverse, 43 acres, he said. Only a portion is on the waterfront and it is versatile enough to support a broader vision, such as additional residential or commercial opportunities.
Steelpointe Harbor, a 64-acre, mixed-use development project, is on the waterfront nearby. The future home to Bass Pro Shops and about two dozen restaurants and other retailers, the project is estimated to bring in hundreds of millions of dollars in private capital. Coleman said a portion of the shipyard could be used to further the success of the project.
Goodison said he sincerely wanted to see the deal move forward, as evidenced by him preemptively moving to the site and signing a temporary lease. He said he put his best offer forward, and felt he met all the RFP”™s criteria. What”™s lost, he said, is the jobs and contracts he would have been able to offer to residents of the city.
“It”™s just a shame because there”™s a real need for a shipyard in the northeast,” Goodison said. “I”™ve been in the business for 40 years. I hear the phone calls of people looking for a place to go. It was a turnkey business there. There would have been 15 to 20 boats docked in that yard from day one.”
“It”™s not about being bitter or angry or trying to get back,” he added. “There is something fundamentally wrong with the process.”
