A Texas company is going to operate a chemical transloading facility at the Trimodal Terminal in Follansbee, an 80-acre riverfront property now in the hands of local developers.
The $1.5 million planned investment by FSTI Inc., will create 10-15 jobs initially and utilize about two acres of the Trimodal Terminal property, which was purchased out of the R.G. Steel bankruptcy. The site was at one time owned by the now-defunct Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel.
FSTI will produce and distribute chemicals at the site, which is accessible by barge, highway or rail: Trimodal boasts 22,000 feet of rail lines serviced by Trimodal Terminal, as well as 3,000 feet of riverfront that can accommodate more than 40 barges as well as the proposed off-loading facility.
The privately funded and operated industrial property is owned by Jim Joseph and Scotty Ewusiak, who have additional acreage on the other side of West Virginia Route 2 that Joseph said is “clear, flat and ready to go.”
“We're very happy to use this property to generate jobs and make this a good location for the Panhandle to capitalize on the gas industry,” Joseph said. “Right now, we've got a lot going on around us in the area. This gives us 150 acres for companies to come in and take advantage of what's happening in the Marcellus and Utica shale and bring jobs here.”
BDC Executive Director Pat Ford said the organization has been showing potential sites to FSTI since the beginning of the year, throughout Brooke and Hancock counties and “in the cities of Beech Bottom, Follansbee and Weirton. “
“They settled into the Follansbee site,” he said, adding that the deal is significant for the Northern Panhandle. “Increasing our concentration of these types of businesses … keeps us on the radar of other companies looking to locate. It bodes well for our Panhandle.”
Ford said Joseph and Ewusiak, “have been great partners of the BDC and their vision for this site … bodes very well for future economic development opportunities, private investment and job creation in West Virginia's Northern Panhandle. Brooke and Hancock counties are clearly on the radar of the oil and gas industry.”
About 48 acres of the 80-acre site remain available for lease.
FSTI, founded in 1998, has more than 150 employees, an around-the-clock command center operations and serves an array of industrial segments, including oilfield and water treatment . http://www.statejournal.com/story/26668703/texas-company-to-build-15-million-chemical-transloading-facility-at-privately-owned-trimodal-terminal-in-follansbee-wv