Larry Heck has spent 73% of his life in the river terminaling business along the Ohio River, the last eight as operating partner of Pier 48 Stevedoring LLC, at Mile 48.9 on the Ohio, in Wellsville, Ohio.
Now, Heck, 66, wants to retire, to take off the many hats he wears at Pier 48. “I run the whole show,” Heck said. Pier 48 Stevedoring is officially up for sale, with the price subject to offer. (Brokered by NAI Ohio River Corridor- click for more information)
Since the company was founded in 2012, Pier 48, in conjunction with the Port Authority of Columbiana County (which owns the land on which Pier 48 operates and built a 60-ton capacity overhead crane prior to enlisting an operator) has made the Wellsville Intermodal Facility a standout (i.e.., busy) facility.
“The overhead crane had sat for five years before me and my partners signed a 27-year lease with the Port Authority, starting Pier 48 Stevedoring with a grant from the Port Authority,” Heck said.
Since 2012, Pier 48 has gone from unloading two to five barges per month, to as many as 35 barges per month, while the products moved on and off the river have grown from the mineral barite (used in well-drilling “muds”) and steel coils, to now also include talc, celestite (which contains strontium, used in metal alloys), jig ore, organic soybeans from Turkey, break-bulk materials and machinery.
In 2016, a $4.2 million expansion was completed, primarily a conveyor system to load trucks directly off the conveyor from a barge. The conveyor was designed to handle 800 net tons per hour. The conveyor system has built into the structure a two-way, reversing 48-inch belt for future expansion.
“We can load out up to 65 trucks,” Heck said. “We worked through the Great Recession, and work has been steadying the last couple years, even during the coronavirus pandemic.”
“The Wellsville port is the last deep river port (going upriver) on the Ohio River, and the only trimodal (barge, railroad, truck) port in Ohio,” according to Penny Traina, CEO/executive director of the Port Authority of Columbiana County.
“The last four years, we’ve been heavily marketing the port,” Traina said. There are 18 terminals in Columbiana County, and in 2018, 2.3 million tons of cargo moved in the county.”
And the future of the Wellsville facility/Pier 48 Stevedoring looks bright, as a unit of oil supermajor Royal Dutch Shell continues construction of its $6 billion ethane cracker upriver in Monaca, Pennsylvania, and a similar project is proposed downriver from Wellsville, in Dilles Bottom, Ohio.
The Petrochemical industry, led by the two cracker projects, is already moving into the region, with property and buildings near the Ohio considered premium assets.
“The Pier 48 business is appealing to a number of people, with many interested parties already having operations on the Ohio,” said Bryce Custer, SIOR, CCIM, MRICS, the broker-owner of NAI Ohio River Corridor.
Pier 48’s Heck said he’s willing to stay for a year after the business is sold, to help with the transition. He is looking forward to traveling the world with his wife, while having more free time to pursue his hobbies of bowling, dancing and creating stained glass windows.
“I want to be able to have two or three weeks for a vacation, rather than just one before returning to the business,” Heck said.
For additional information on Pier 48 or other rail and barge facilities/opportunities along the Ohio River in Ohio or West Virginia, contact Bryce Custer, Broker of NAI Ohio River Corridor at [email protected].