A year after Georgia Renewable Power and Renewable Energy Group purchased the equipment that belonged to KiOR on The Island, much of the equipment remains on the 22-acre parcel.
KiOR filed for bankruptcy in November 2014 after failing to produce bio-fuel at their Columbus plant.
After missing three deadlines to have the site cleared, company officials and the Lowndes County Port Authority, which owns the property, have penciled in Dec. 31 as the new date to have the equipment removed.
“We are all on the same page,” said Will Sanders, the port authority director. “We expect to have everything cleared by the end of the year.”
In October 2015, Georgia Renewable Power (GRP), agreed to purchase roughly 75 percent of the KiOR equipment for $2.1 million. Renewable Energy Group (REG) purchased the remaining equipment, which consisted mainly of a massive 120-foot tall hydro-treater structure that covers roughly half a city block. REG paid $1.6 million for the purchase.
Officials at GRP and REG declined to talk about their efforts to clear the site, referring all inquiries to Sanders.
“We are as eager as anyone to have everything off the site,” Sanders said. “But we also realize there is an awful lot of equipment out there. This is not something that happens overnight and we want to work with these companies to get everything moved as quickly as possible. Will the site be 100 percent cleared by the end of the year? It’s hard to say, but that’s our goal and that’s what everyone is working toward.”
After failing to meet its second deadline in June, Sanders and the companies worked out a new lease arrangement which calls for incremental increases in rent paid by the company each month. That plan remains in effect, Sanders said.
“It’s important to know that we are looking out for the interest of the port in this,” Sanders said. “The rent GRP and REG pay helps offset the revenue we lost when KiOR went out of business.”
Equipment from a smaller site adjacent to the KiOR property — formerly Southern Wood Fiber — is being sold by Bank Independent. Sanders said the bank’s attorneys said that equipment will be sold and removed by the end of November.
A marketable property
When those sites are cleared, the port will have a prime 95-acre property to market to new tenants.
The Golden Triangle Development LINK has been in discussions with a prospective tenant since the beginning of the year. In early July, LINK CEO Joe Max Higgins expressed frustration with the slow progress of clearing the site, saying it could be a deterrent to closing the deal.
The company had planned to do a final site inspection in September, but has delayed that until later this month, said Higgins.
“The company is still considering the site,” Higgins said. “As far as we know, we’re still in good shape.”
Higgins said the pace of the equipment removal has picked up and he no longer feels the delays will have much of an effect on his ability to market the property.
“Ideally, you would like to have a clear site because it’s a lot easier to envision what the site could look like when it’s clear,” Higgins said. “The good news is that the company has visited the site five times and each time they are seeing stuff being cleared. As long as that continues to happen, I don’t see it being a big problem.”
While Higgins remains optimistic, he’s not entirely sure RNG and REG will have the site cleared by the new deadline.
“I doubt they’ll have the site cleared by the end of the year. By the end of the first quarter seems more realistic to me,” Higgins said. “If it’s done by then, it really shouldn’t be a problem because a company wouldn’t really be ready to take over the site until after that.”
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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