Mayor Javier Joven’s dreams of an inland port in Odessa were dashed Wednesday, at least they were if Permian Basin Inland Port is involved.
The Odessa Development Corporation voted unanimously Wednesday to terminate negotiations to purchase property at 3215 W. Murphy Street that was to be developed as an inland port operated by Permian Basin Inland Port.
The ODC scheduled a special meeting for Oct. 21 to approve a deal to purchase the land for nearly $8.3 million and city officials were so convinced the deal was going to go through, the city council put it on their Oct. 22 agenda to sign off on it.
However, the ODC tabled their vote after members Melanie Hollmann and David Boutin expressed a desire to have a new environmental study conducted and requested a new appraisal for the land, which is in receivership. Boutin was not at the meeting but had emailed his position prior to the meeting.
The environmental study would’ve taken as much as six months and yet the deal only gave the city 14 days to inspect the property. The ODC at that point was hoping Permian Basin Inland Port would extend the “feasibility period” in order to have the study and appraisals done and to negotiate the land lease, loan agreement and some other things.
But an Oct. 22 email obtained by the Odessa America under the Texas Public Information Act shows Tom Manskey, Director of Economic Development for the Odessa Chamber of Commerce, indicated he’d already been told the deal was dead and yet was working feverishly to try to rescue it.
Manskey emailed Taylor Rich, president of Sitelogx, a company that was working with Permian Basin Inland Port to put together the deal, outlining the ODC board’s hope for an extension on the feasibility period.
He noted that Rich told him on Oct. 21 he’d not be able to speak with the receiver and that he’d refused to give him the contact information for the Realtor.
“I guess I did not explain well enough that the ODC has certain state and local laws they have to abide by and cannot just jump into any agreement without proper due diligence. I realize as a government entity some of these items can be time consuming,” Manskey wrote.
He then went on to remind Rich that Rich had told him the deal was “dead.”
“If for some reason that situation changes, and the receiver and/or Realtor want to open a direct dialogue with me, please let me know,” Manskey wrote. “If another suitable site might enter into the equation, perhaps we can visit that opportunity.”
On Wednesday, the ODC spent about an hour in executive session during another specially scheduled meeting before coming out and voting to terminate any future work on what was called Project Logical.
Board chairman James Kirk said they’ve been in the process of due diligence for several months and they kept getting conflicting information from the parties involved.
“And we will not be able to move forward with this project at this point,” Kirk said.
Boutin said he believed the receiver involved in the project has already moved on.
“I think that’s in large part because our efforts as a board, in order to make a good, prudent decision by moving methodically and prudently on behalf of the taxpayers through this thing, has taken some time and the conflicting information has not been resolved, and therefore this is where we are,” Boutin said.
Boutin said he isn’t happy about the situation because they’ve worked so hard on it, but he was in favor of terminating negotiations and made the motion.
Hollmann seconded the motion.
“I agree, I am not happy that the deal isn’t going to happen, because I do think that an inland port could be valuable to the city of Odessa. I hope that there are other opportunities to pursue a similar project, but with different parties involved, it’s important that we prioritize working with parties that we can rely on and whose information we can be confident in,” she said.
The deal had been a couple of years in the making.
In July 2022, Joven spent a couple of days south of New Orleans visiting with people at the Plaquemines Port Harbor and Terminal District and businessmen who hoped to one day create a direct transportation line between the port and Odessa.
Joven said at the time two of the principals had ties to Odessa and they were in talks about building a rail facility and connecting up with existing Union Pacific railways.
The principals liked that Odessa is already familiar with oil, gas and chemicals, Joven said.
On March 28, 2023, council members heard a presentation from Taylor Rich.
Rich and one of his clients, Roger King from Pipeline Innovation, spoke about the lack of rail service in the Permian Basin and the need for an inland port.
King said smaller companies have a demand for rail service and an inland port would be an opportunity to level the playing field for smaller companies.
On June 13, the ODC signed a memorandum of understanding with Permian Basin Inland Port to assist and provide support for the development of the port.
Texas Secretary of State records show a Roger King is the registered agent for Permian Basin Inland Port and campaign finance records show a Roger King donated $1,500 to Joven’s re-election campaign.
Joven is facing Odessa attorney Cal Hendrick in the mayor’s race.
Prior to going into executive session Wednesday and before the ODC voted, Republican Precinct Chair Ronnie Lewis and former ODC President Kris Crow asked the board to table the discussions on the project, but for different reasons.
Lewis said he wanted to postpone discussions on it so people could determine if other members of the city council were going to benefit from it.
“So what I’m getting a lot of feedback from a lot of Odessa says we’d like to see this table, take a breath and kind of slow things down, because we know that the mayor’s been chasing this,” Lewis said. “We know that the mayor benefits, and we don’t know if anybody else has been benefiting. So that’s just what I’m saying. I’m speaking for a lot of voters, and I hope you all realize that, you know, a lot of voters reach out to me.”
Lewis’ claims of representing a lot of voters caused ODC member Larry Robinson to ask what puts Lewis in a position to get feedback and the pair spent the next couple of minutes going back and forth about the March primary when Lewis and a whole slate of others defeated several long-time precinct chairs.
After being told they’d deviated from the agenda, Lewis said, “OK, these voters want this thing tabled. What (City Manager John) Beckmeyer and Joven did was improper, what Roger King did was improper. We need to slow this down and figure out what’s going on, because most likely, there’s going to be a new mayor here pretty quick.”
Robinson shot back, “We can figure it out.”
Crow said the proposed contract has changed substantially from when discussions first began. He questioned the proposed sale amount and he said the ODC compliance committee needed to take a look at the deal, which it has not done to this point.
“When everything comes in, I have full faith you guys all will make the right decision, but I…was kind of questioning why we’re having an emergency meeting when you guys are going to be meeting again here in the next two weeks, anyway, to kind of shove this in,” Crow said.
Crow, too, said he thinks an inland port is a great idea that will lead to more economic development and more jobs, “if it’s structured properly.”
