August 6, 2018 [NJ.com] - The Bayonne Energy Center, a gas-fired power generation facility that sends energy to New York City, is set to be sold for roughly $900 million in cash.
Macquarie Infrastructure Corporation (MIC), a publicly traded company managed by Australia’s largest investment bank, Macquarie Group Ltd., announced this weekend that it was selling the power generation facility, which sits on the Peninsula City’s eastern-most shoreline on Constable Hook.
The company is selling the facility for $900 million in cash and assumed debt to NHIP II Bayonne Holdings LLC, MIC announced Sunday.
The company in 2016 announced it was expanding the Bayonne site after making several nearby land purchases. That expansion was completed earlier this year and allowed MIC to increase the total megawatt generation from 512 megawatts to 644 megawatts.
While an incandescent light bulb uses between 60 and 100 watts, one megawatt is equal to a million watts.
The Bayonne facility powers at least 500,000 homes in New York City.
“Having completed various capacity and capability expansion projects at BEC, we concluded that this was an appropriate time to sell the facility and redeploy the proceeds to address strategic priorities including strengthening our balance sheet,” said Christopher Frost, chief executive officer of MIC.
MIC, the parent company of International-Matex Tank Terminals (IMTT), said in a release that it “anticipates using part of the net proceeds of approximately $650 million… to reduce debt… at the Company’s IMTT business.”
IMTT, a bulk liquid storage and handling facility located at 250 East 22nd St., has more than 600 storage tanks. Located at the intersection of the Kill Van Kull and Upper New York Harbor, the complex also has truck- and rail car-loading facilities.
The transaction is expected to be closed sometime in the fourth financial quarter (October to December), pending approvals from the New York Public Service Commission and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
The facility was built in 2012 and sends power to New York City through a cable running from Bayonne — beneath the New York Harbor — to a substation in Brooklyn.
The power plant was originally built as part of a $400 million joint venture between Hess Corporation and an affiliate of ArcLight Capital Partners to “serve New York City’s power needs without taxing the energy grid in New Jersey,” The Jersey Journal reported.
The city, under then-Mayor Mark Smith, gave final approvals for the facility in 2009 and awarded the site a 30-year tax abatement.
The site was purchased by MIC in 2015 for $720 million.
At the time of the tax abatement vote, city officials said the abatement would generate $45 million in revenue for the city over the next three decades.
The facility currently pays a little more than $1.66 million to the city annually from both the PILOT fee and an administrative fee: $1,588,445 from the abatement tax and $77,520 in administrative fees, according to the city spokesman Joe Ryan.
The facility comprises approximately 12 jobs, according to Ryan, although it is unclear if those jobs are held by city residents.
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