In a release sent July 18 by Malheur County Development Corp. Executive Director Shawna Peterson, MCDC announced it had “recently received notice of Americold’s intent to terminate its agreement to lease and operate the Treasure Valley Reload Facility. Americold cited construction delays and anticipated insufficient customer volumes as the basis for its determination.”
The project began with a bill from Greg Smith and Cliff Bentz, both members of the Oregon State House at that time, that was ultimately passed by the Oregon legislature and signed by Gov. Kate Brown in 2017. The $5.3 billion state transportation bill earmarked $26 million for the Malheur County facility that is under construction in the city of Nyssa.
In the intervening years a number of milestones have been reached, with agreements having been made with service providers and construction contractors.
The MCDC release noted, “Americold’s decision coincides with a deliberate pause on the part of the MCDC board to allow time to best plan a successful future for the project. To that end, the MCDC team is updating the business, operational, and financial plans and exploring all options.”
It concluded, “The future economic prosperity of Malheur County and its residents depend on good decisions based on accurate and up-to-date information, particularly on investments of the scale and scope of the reload project. That is exactly what the MCDC board and all the stakeholders in this important project are committed to delivering.”
OnionBusiness will continue to follow this story for updates.
Designed to serve the region’s onion industry as well as numerous other commodities, the center’s purpose is to provide onion shippers and others to be competitive in various markets across the United States.”
