b'FEBRUARY 14 - MARCH 13, 2022FLORIDA PORTS 19Dole Fresh Fruits recently added weekly containership service from Central America furthers the diversity ofPort of Port St. Joe activity includes final work on new Staten Island ferries offerings at Port Tampa Bay. and loading wood chips for export.(BUSTLEcontinued fromPanama City. torpositionvacatedbytheFacilities at Port Panamasupported by completion of a page 18) retirement of Wayne Stubbs,Citys new East Terminal are70,000-square-footcontainer of Tampa Bay, is experienc- P oRTP anaMaC iTy while veteran SSA Terminalsbusymovingforestprod- freight station.In addition, the ing unprecedented growth inAtPortPanamaCity,executiveDamienBressleructexports,whiletheportsport is moving forward with containers,withthenumberAlexKinghasbeenpro- hascomeaboardtofillthecontainertradewithMexico(BUSTLEcontinued on of20-foot-equivalentunitsmoted to the executive direc- deputy director role. continuestogrowaswell,page 20)crossing its docks growing 29 percent in fiscal 2021, thanks to an expanding market, stra-tegicinvestmentandattrac-tion of new services.The Tampa Bay/Interstate 4corridorregionishometo almost half of Floridas popula-tion and the largest concentra-tionofdistributioncentersin the state, approaching 400 mil-EXPANDING CAP Y TOPort Tampa Bay is accom- O ACIT Alion square feet of capacity.inFL RID Smodatinggrowthviaater-minalbuild-outprogram, closecoordinationwithter-minaloperatorpartnerPorts America.Mostofthetop globalcontainerlinesnow provide weekly service fromDISTRIBUTIONAsia to Port Tampa Bay, whileHUBrecent addition of new weekly container service from Central America by Dole Fresh Fruit andexpandedconnections withMexicobyZIMand Linea Peninsular have diver-sified offerings.P oRT ofP oRTS T . J oeAlongtheFloridaPan- No congestion Expanded terminal capacity with plenty of handle, the Port of Port St. Joeroom for growthis continuing to make stridesTampa/Orlando I-4 Corridor: 400 million SF after being inactive since clo- of distribution center space Multiple round-trip truck deliveries per day sure of the St. Joe Co.s paperE-commerce, consumer goods, perishablesfrom Port to distribution centersmill in the late 1990s. and building materials New and expanded container services with A recent $15 million Tri- Central America, Mexico and Asiaumph Gulf Coast grant awardOne of the hottest industrial real estate fromfundsrelatedtothemarkets in the U.S.2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill is to be used toward returningtheportchannel toitspermitteddepthofasWWW.PORTTB.COMmany as 37 feet, with hopes forthedredgingprocessto begin in early 2023.Inthemeantime,with oceangoing vessels unable to reach port berths, barges are beingdeployedtotransport cargostoandfromtrans-loading in bay waters. Those cargosincludewoodchips exportedtoHondurasfor powergenerationattextile plants.Also,EasternShip-building is using the port for finishing work on three new Staten Island ferries and six U.S.CoastGuardcutters being built 40 miles away in'