TEDA looks to BP for cold storage funds

After Terrebonne Economic Development Authority (TEDA) spent months trying to facilitate a cold storage and incubation unit in Terrebonne Parish as part of two hurricane recovery projects, the parish can no longer provide land for the facility.

“As we were looking at programs for recovery post-Katrina and Rita, we had filed for two projects that were under consideration,” TEDA CEO Mike Ferdinand said. “One for cold storage because a fair amount of capacity had been lost and folks were having to store things pretty far away, and we were also looking at an incubator to add value to product coming out of the fisheries.”

Ferdinand said the two projects were combined to make a more viable proposal, as suggested by the state. The construction of the cold storage and incubator kitchen was secured by Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds as an “urgent need” for the parish.

Parish President Michel Claudet said the oil disaster is to blame for the parish’s inability to fund the land for the project.

“While TEDA’s cold storage/incubator project may take on an even more critical nature in the future recovery of the industry, the uncontrolled release of oil from the Deepwater Horizon continues to have a substantial adverse impact upon the parish’s tax base, and the local economy,” Claudet wrote in a letter to TEDA President Matthew Armand. “As a result, TPCG is unable to commit to the purchase of the land for the government campus, on which the TEDA project would have been a tenant.”

The government campus, which would be a 75-acre stretch of land located near the intersection of U.S. Highway 90 and La. Highway 24, was also slated to hold a new emergency operations center and animal shelter.

But Ferdinand still sees an “urgent need” for the cold storage facility, and is exploring other funding options.

“We have not had any substantial additions for cold storage in the parish, so we have an even greater need to further add value to our product,” he said. “And at the recommendation of those administering claims, we filed a claim under BP, and we are looking into opportunities for other sources of funding. We will need to submit a report by Oct. 31.”

Ferdinand also added the new site would need to be selected by that time, and would only be a 10-acre site – substantially smaller than the parish government campus site.

“We haven’t filed reports yet for other funding,” Ferdinand said. “It is yet to be determined how that would go forward as it relates to the oil spill.”

Moving forward has been hard for Claudet, too.

“I’ve had to rethink everything that we’ve been doing,” he said. “You go forward in one direction, and then all of a sudden you have to say ‘Well look, if all this drops, what’s going to happen?’ and truly, it’s been difficult to try to do that.”

Claudet hopes to get the cold storage project up and running as soon as possible, however.

“The current economic reality is not within our control. We look forward to being able to revisit TPCG’s commitment to the project once the economic effects are more fully realized,” the parish president wrote to Armand.