June 23, 2009
BY DAVID BAUERLEIN
STORY UPDATED AT 5:11 AM ON TUESDAY, JUN. 23, 2009
Keystone Coal Co. will acquire 39 acres of land from the Jacksonville Port Authority as part of a settlement that takes JaxPort off the hook for paying millions of dollars to attorneys who represented Keystone in a condemnation case.
The settlement, which the JaxPort board approved today, calls for Keystone Coal to pay $6.6 million to JaxPort for the property, which is next to 65 acres the company owns north of the Talleyrand terminal.
In addition, Keystone Coal will take responsibility for paying its attorneys, eliminating a cost that had been hanging over JaxPort. A judge had previously ordered JaxPort to pay $10.5 million to the law firm representing Keystone Coal when it fought back an attempt by JaxPort to acquire Keystone’s tract through eminent domain.
The upshot for Keystone Coal is it will have a 104-acre site where the company plans to build a bulk terminal for shipments of coal, petroleum coke, and rock.
JaxPort will retreat from that area, closing the chapter on its own attempt to buy up land for a site JaxPort wanted to lease to a different company for a coal-shipping facility.
JaxPort paid about $5.7 million for the land it will sell to Keystone Coal.
JaxPort said in a statement that public ownership of the land would have generated the best long-term return for the community, but selling the land to Keystone Coal creates the “next best possible situation for the people
