William E. Cleary Sr. | Cleary’s Notebook News
(CNBNews)(July 1, 2015)–The $260 million Holtec project at the Broadway Terminal, Broadway and Morgan Blvd., Camden City is moving forward. The terminal is managed by the South Jersey Port Corporation (SJPC). Holtec entered into an agreement last year with the state of New Jersey to build a state-of-the-art Technology Center in Camden which will take up to four years to construct.
Kris Singh, president and CEO of Holtec said, “Holtec will have spent at least $260 million by 2018 to make the company eligible for tax incentives that get distributed over the following 10 years. The net value of the state’s support to our Camden project, after federal taxes and net present value computation, comes to less than $150 million. Thus we are spending $260 million today in the hope that we will be reimbursed about $150 million through tax credits by 2028. (Source The Philadelphia Inquirer).Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/20150427_Bring_jobs__opportunity_to_a_revived_Camden.html#MRApHwvzp0fKsDx9.99
The Center is being configured to foster a synergistic environment for developing innovative designs for the power industry and for manufacturing of complex weldments in a precision fabrication facility. The Center will have over 500,000 square feet of fabrication, machining, and staging space served by cranes with up to 400 ton capacity. Another 100,000 square feet structure will house the “test loop, laboratory, and training facility”.
The Center will occupy approximately 47 acres in the southern end of the Camden terminal along the Delaware waterfront with ready access to a contiguous deep water port. A new rail spur will connect the facility to the Conrail system for rail transport of fabricated equipment. Interstate 676, located in close proximity to the Center, will facilitate the efficient transport of goods by road.
Holtec has committed to the State of New Jersey to commission the site with some 400 personnel on the very first day. Thereafter, the company estimates the local craft labor employment in the plant to approach 2,000 in the first five years of operation. The professional employment at the Center is likewise expected to increase to 1,000.
Some of the buildings being demolished at the terminal were once owned by the New York Shipbuilding Corporation (NYSC). A search of Wikipedia revealed the NYSC was founded in 1899 by Henry G. Morse,an engineer. The original plan was to build a shipyard on Staten Island, thus the name of the company.Plans to acquire a site failed and, after exploration as far south as Virginia with special attention being paid to the Delaware River area, a location in the southern part of Camden City, NJ was chosen instead.
At its peak the shipyard employed thousands of people from the South Jersey/Philadelphia region. During World War II, NYSB was the largest and most productive shipyard in the world. Its best-known vessels include the destroyer USS Reuben James (DD-245), the cruiser USS Indianapolis (CA-35), the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63), the nuclear-powered cargo ship NS Savannah, and a quartet of cargo-passenger liners nicknamed the Four Aces.
New York Ship built more than 500 vessels for the U.S. Navy, the United States Merchant Marine, the United States Coast Guard, and other maritime concerns.
During World War I, New York Ship expanded rapidly to fill orders from the U.S. Navy and the Emergency Fleet Corporation. A critical shortage of worker housing led to the construction of Yorkship Village, a planned community of 1,000 brick homes designed by Electus Darwin Litchfield and financed by the War Department. Yorkship Village is now the Fairview section of the City of Camden.
After World War II, a much-diminished New York Ship subsisted on a trickle of contracts from the United States Maritime Administration and the U.S. Navy. The yard launched its last civilian vessel (SS Export Adventurer) in 1960, and its last naval vessel was ordered (USS Camden) in 1967. The former yard’s site is now part of the Port of Camden/Gloucester City, and handles breakbulk cargo. The property is split between Holt Cargo Systems and the South Port Corporation
We asked South Jersey Port Executive Director and CEO Kevin Castagnola about two missiles supposedly being found recently in one of the buildings at the terminal. Likewise we asked him about a old 1930 Ford being discovered too. Castagnola said the unarmed missiles were from the USS New Jersey aircraft carrier and they were being stored at the terminal. As far as the antique car, he said he wasn’t aware of such a vehicle being found. “If such a vehicle had been found it would belong to Joe Balzano’s family.” Balzano was the chief executive of the SJPC who died in October 2011 at the age of 77.
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