Phoenix Lease Signing PDF Print E-mail

OPED schedules Phoenix lease signing  

By DONNA COLLINS Staff Writer

Camden News 12/08/09  

  Representatives of Phoenix Renewable Energy will be signing a land lease with the Camden Area Industrial Development Corporation during Wednesday’s meeting of Ouachita Partnership for Economic Development. The meeting begins at 10 a.m.
   The OPED board will also discuss replacements for board members with expiring terms and get an update on the city’s Adams Avenue Redevelopment Project.
   According to CAIDC board president Alan Dean, Phoenix CEO Sam Anderson and Steve Walker, the company’s chief operating officer and director of development, will be on hand for the signing.
   Phoenix is leasing 47.66 acres of the 124-acre area once occupied by International Paper Company.
   According to CAIDC executive director James Lee Silliman, staging for construction and infrastructure development is already under way at the site and heavy construction is set to begin in early 2010.
   Phoenix plans to construct three facilities: A wood processing yard designed to accept 1.2 million tons of woody biomass annually, a 20.3 mega watt biomass combined heat and power plant producing electricity and steam; and a wood pellet mill plant producing 350,000 tons of pellets annually to be shipped from the Port of Camden to customers in Europe.
   "We are excited about moving forward with the construction of this plant in Camden, Arkansas. This plant represents our future in a sustainable green economy and the hopes and dreams of many Arkansans," Walker said in a news release from CAIDC. 
  

 Silliman stated in the release, "OPED and CAIDC have worked closely together on the conversion of the former International Paper site on South Adams to the Camden Energy and Renewable Resources Industrial Park."
   According to Silliman, Phoenix Renewable Energy is the third tenant to commit to the Camden Energy and Renewable Resources Industrial Park. Currently, there are two other tenants in the park - Paper Tigers, a Chicago-based company which shreds and bales aftermarket paper and paperboard and exports overseas and Chambliss Bridge Company, a local company which takes decommissioned rail cars and turns them into fl at car bridge decks with spans of up to 89 feet. 
   Other items on OPED’s Wednesday agenda are: • An auditor’s report for the 2008 calendar year.
   • A 2010 proposed budget. • An update on the OPED-sponsored Ark-of-the-Ouachita community development meetings held in November.