$837 million in public and private funds will be invested in Port of Philadelphia, Gov. Shapiro says

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro on Tuesday announced the state will invest $371 million in the Port of Philadelphia, a commitment he said will help create thousands of jobs and boost the port’s capacity to handle container cargo and automobiles.

Shapiro said the state funding will “unlock” at least $200 million in private investment and $266 million in federal grants as part of what he called the largest expansion in the port’s history.

That expansion will nearly double the number of jobs at the port from 8,000 to 14,000, the governor said.

“These are family-sustaining jobs. These are jobs that allow people to have pride in their work and put food on the table,” Shapiro said at the Southport Auto Terminal along the Delaware River at the Navy Yard, where he was joined by Mayor Cherelle L. Parker, maritime industry executives, and leaders from the Teamsters and longshoremen’s unions.

“It’s thousands of highly paid union jobs here,” said Shapiro, a Democrat who is seeking a second term in next month’s midterm elections. He’s running against Republican State Treasurer Stacy Garrity.

The private investments include $100 million from Holt Logistics Corp. The Shapiro administration did not provide additional details about the private investments secured.

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The Port of Philadelphia is a relatively small player compared to other U.S. container ports. Philadelphia handled 889,000 container units last year, or about 10% of the 8.9 million units that passed through the Port of New York and New Jersey, the top East Coast port.

But Philly’s port has been growing over the past decade amid the deepening of the Delaware River; the 2016 expansion of the Panama Canal in Central America, which has allowed bigger ships to carry more cargo through the waterway; and increased public and private investment.

Philly is a major gateway for refrigerated cargo such as produce — it imports more fresh fruit than any other U.S. port, mostly from Central and South America.

The new investments will help build a new berth at Southport — a 155-acre auto processing center on the former Navy base where imported Hyundais and Kias are stored before heading to dealer showrooms. The berth will create more space for ships to dock at the port, officials said.

Shapiro said the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority — a state agency known as PhilaPort that owns seaport facilities along the Delaware — will also use the new funding to develop container- and auto-handling facilities at the Mustin freight yard adjacent to Southport.

PhilaPort acquired the 152-acre yard from Norfolk Southern Corp. last year with $90 million in state funds to create more space for containers and vehicles.

“That increased capacity will mean more Pennsylvania businesses have access to more raw materials, spare parts that they need, whether they’re in manufacturing, they’re in our growing life sciences sector, or in our massive energy sector,” Shapiro said.

“And our companies are now going to have access to more global markets, so they can grow and succeed,” he added.

Shapiro’s office said state funds will also be used to buy cranes and other equipment, as well as land.

Leo Holt, president of Holt Logistics Corp., said his company will invest $100 million as part of the expansion announced Tuesday. Gloucester City, N.J.-based Holt operates the Packer Avenue Marine Terminal in South Philly, the port’s largest container terminal.

“This is a job multiplier that will go on for the better part of a decade,” Holt said.

Scott Cornell, CEO of Glovis America — a logistics firm that operates the Southport terminal — called the investments a “significant milestone.”

“Adding berths and adding marine terminal space at this scale is not an everyday event. It’s not an every year event. It’s not an every decade event,” he said.

Glovis — an affiliate of South Korea-based Hyundai Motor Group — operates at 21 ports and terminals across the U.S., he said, “and nothing compares to the development described today,” Cornell said.

Shapiro’s bet on the port comes after his predecessor, fellow Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf, directed more than $500 million in state funds to Philly’s port. That money was used to develop Southport, buy new cranes at the Packer Avenue terminal, and invest in warehouses.

The new state investments will be financed through borrowing, according to Shapiro’s office.