Residents and business owners in the Holy Cross and Lower 9th Ward neighborhoods will gather Friday evening September 27 to strategize how to prevent a new grain terminal from taking shape at the old Alabo Street Wharf. They believe the business venture will bring significant environmental consequences from disease-carrying rodents and vermin, safety concerns for neighborhood children who play along the tracks as well as uncontrollable traffic and noise. The active use of the train tracks will also physically divide the neighborhood like the 1-10 construction along Claiborne Avenue cleaved Treme into two distinct parts.
For decades a set of now decrepit tracks has occupied a sizeable footprint on Alabo Street between the Mississippi River and St. Claude Avenue. Train cars are a rare site. All that could change if the behemoth exporter Sunrise Foods International begins operating a Bulk Organic Grain Terminal on the Alabo Street Wharf.
In October 2020, the Dock Board announced that Gulf Stream Marine (GSM) – “highly respected for their operational expertise with breakbulk, bulk and heavy-life cargo” – would serve as the terminal operator at the Alabo Street Wharf. The 16-acre site includes a 125,310 square foot transit shed which could become available for Sunrise Foods. It offers a quick connection to 1-10 and to Class 1 rail using the track bed that runs along Alabo Street.
Port officials are thought to view GSM’s presence as part of a long-term plan to bring new cargo to little used facilities and build fresh capacity beyond the uptown wharfs. The Dock Board is also planning to build a 400-acre Louisiana International Terminal in Violet, Louisiana.
On June 27, 2024, the Dock Board unanimously approved a lease agreement with Sunrise Foods for the Alabo Street Terminal. The lease is pending execution. According to their website, Sunrise Foods “sources, processes and markets premium specialty agri-food ingredients” that are gathered from “an extensive network of producers and suppliers” and delivered “seamlessly” to customers around the world. With offices in the U.S., Europe and Canada, Sunrise Foods offers a wide variety of wholesale ingredients from cereal and feed grains to pulses, oil seeds and finished products. Their inventory includes barley, canola, chickpeas, corn, durum, flax, lentils, mustard, oats, peas, rye, soybeans, spelt, sunflower and wheat.
Many of Sunrise Foods’ products are “certified organic.” Residents are uncomfortable that transporting and storing grains that might have not been treated with pesticides will attract disease-carrying animals.
Area residents also claim they were never consulted about the proposed project nor given the proper opportunity to make formal comments. The Dock Board followed the protocol required by state law to inform the public regarding a new lease. It includes the placement of two legal notices printed in the agency’s official journal and a time and date to make public comments at a meeting of the agency’s board of directors. Residents counter that the executive committee – not the board – was still meeting at the proposed time. Therefore, they could not speak.
Later that afternoon when the full board met, a group of individuals who were present from NOSHIP to protest the port’s business relationship with Israel, did speak in favor of the grain terminal, allegedly inadvertently. Several residents who oppose the grain terminal voiced their concerns at the Dock Board’s September 26 meeting. A follow-up meeting with a Dock Board official may be in the works. Information about the project was also available at two community stakeholder meetings in August and earlier in September, according to port officials.
Holy Cross resident Lindsay Edwards says she can watch all the action on the Alabo Wharf from her second floor living room window. “The Port has made a concerted effort to keep these negotiations with Sunrise Foods secret. Why locate a grain terminal in the middle of an historic urban area? For the Port it’s a way to bring a near obsolete facility back into commerce and squeeze that last drop of revenue. But at what cost to the neighborhood? Who knows what a grain terminal is going to bring,” said Edwards.
“This project has not been spoken to within this community to get an honest opinion of what is being done,” said Rev. Willie Calhoun. Jeffrey Wittenbrink Jr. lives within the train track’s footprint. “I am worried about ingress and egress as well as the emergency response time for police, fire and EMS whenever the train cars are on the Alabo tracks,” he explained.
“As a board member of the Holy Cross Neighborhood Association, our group is concerned about the impact on the neighbors, especially for those who live along the track. We oppose the project. We have legacy families who remember the dust and rats that were experienced once before,” said Bette Perez.
Resident Doron Dusuau is concerned about health. “The amount of vermin in the grain and rice will be astronomical. We’ll see rodents we have never seen before,” said Dusuau. To neighborhood residents like Rollin, this project is a bookend to the Industrial Canal. “There is always an environmental impact we don’t know about. Just remember the 100 years of toxic waste in the Industrial Canal. I’ve lost all faith that anyone cares,” he said.
Port NOLA’s lease with Sunrise Foods has a $33.45 million guarantee over the 15-year primary term. Additionally, there will be a total economic potential value of $55.75 million in rent with lease option extensions. The development is expected to create both temporary and permanent jobs as well as contribute to the local economy, according to port officials.
“Port NOLA has owned the Alabo Street Wharf for decades and it has been vital to the efficient and secure movement of a wide range of cargo in the global supply chain. In partnership with Sunrise Foods International and Norfolk Southern, Port NOLA will begin the process of revitalizing the Alabo Street Wharf facility. Alabo’s warehouse space and proximity to rail makes it the ideal location for a grain-handling facility where grain will be transported in via bulk vessels, transported into a warehouse and then loaded into rail cars,” said a spokesperson.
The majority of rail track leading to the Alabo Street Wharf is owned by Norfolk Southern, who is in the process of rehabilitating and will be responsible for maintaining those tracks. The Port of New Orleans owns a very small portion of track that connects directly into the Alabo facility. A NOPB-certified track inspector will conduct quarterly inspections of that segment of track and the NOPB will maintain that segment in accordance with the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Rail Administration (FRA) maintenance and safety standards.
“Sunrise Foods International Inc. has specialized in organic and non-GMO agri-food ingredients for 25 years, both in the U.S. and abroad. They are highly experienced operationally and will have a pest management plan in place as is the case at all of their facilities. Sunrise Foods also committed to being a good neighbor through their sustainable practices as well as by investing in the Holy Cross Community through neighborhood improvements,” the Port’s spokesperson concluded.
The community meeting is set for Friday, September 27 at the Martin Luther King/Lawless High School, 5300 Shirley Taylor/Law Street. State Representative Candace Newell who represents Holy Cross and the Lower 9th Ward will also be in attendance. The meeting will begin at 5:30 p.m.
