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May 24, 2007

LNG company headquarters lease could mean $10M over 20 years to Gloucester

By Douglas A. Moser , Staff writer

An energy company proposing to build an offshore liquefied natural gas terminal off Gloucester has signed a lease and will be moving into office space at the new Cruiseport Gloucester Marine Terminal. The company said the move could bring as much as $10 million over two decades into the local economy.

The lease, signed by Suez North America, will begin July 1 and extend through the 20-year expected life span of the company's proposed Neptune LNG terminal. It will include office space for managers, staff and support personnel.

The lease agreement is also expected to create 24 jobs, which will be filled by advertising locally, rather than bringing candidates from other branches of the Texas-based company, according to a statement released by Suez.

Julie Vitek, a spokeswoman for Suez, said employees will begin moving in as soon as the lease begins and finalize details of how they will organize the space.

A 130-foot tow and support boat for the LNG tankers will also dock at the facility. Because the boat will be equipped with firefighting and rescue capabilities, Suez said it will be valuable to local emergency responders as needed.

"Bringing the Neptune operations center and support vessel to Gloucester is the right move for Neptune and will bring substantial economic benefits to the Port of Gloucester," Clay Harris, president and chief executive officer of Suez North America, said in a statement.

Company officials estimated the new jobs and business generated by Suez locating in Gloucester could bring up to $10 million to the local economy over the next 20 years.

Local developer Frank Elliot is building the $6 million Cruiseport Gloucester Marine Terminal at Rowe Square where smaller, shallow-draft vessels and cruise ships can dock in the inner harbor. The facility, which will kick off a weekend-long opening celebration starting tomorrow, will be a public-use facility with a banquet area and welcome center for docking cruise ships.

"The thing that turned me on with the Neptune project was that it didn't exclude anything," Elliot said. "It's one more use (for the terminal)."

Elliot would not discuss the value of the lease. Suez will be the anchor tenant in the 15,000-square-foot facility.

The dock level of the facility will house a 2,500-square-foot legal processing center for the Coast Guard and Department of Homeland Security to deal with travelers transferring to and from cruise ships.

The upper dance level will include a 6,500-square-foot ballroom with hardwood floors, a 2,400-square-foot kitchen for caterers and multiple panoramic views of the harbor all the way to the Paint Factory.

Vito Calomo, executive director of the Massachusetts Fishery Recovery Commission and a vocal opponent of the LNG ports, said the lease is a silver lining.

"I battled against it, but now that we've lost the battle, we have to look for the positives for Gloucester," he said. "They'll be buying things here. It'll create jobs and I think they'll use the manpower here who have expertise."

Suez' project received its operating license from the U.S. Maritime Administration in March, one of the final permits required before it can begin construction. The international energy company plans to have the facility operating by the end of 2009.

Excelerate Energy, which is building the Northeast Gateway Energy Bridge 13 miles southeast of Gloucester, is waiting for its operating license, but expects it soon. The company, based in The Woodlands, Texas, hopes to begin construction this summer and wants to begin operation by the end of this year.

Each port will be an underwater buoy to which tankers filled with supercooled liquefied natural gas will moor. The vessels reheat the liquid and pump the gas into a pipeline scheduled to be constructed this summer and connect to the existing HubLine pipe, which runs underwater from Salem to Quincy.

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