Senate committee holds bill to relocate DOE warehouse after Port Authority seeks cost recovery

The Committee on Economic Development and Agriculture held Bill No. 36‑0065 on June 9 after testimony from the Virgin Islands Port Authority and the Department of Education revealed disagreements over site selection, construction costs and how commercial revenue from the former Adelita Concrain campus should be shared.

Bill 36‑0065 would have amended Act 85‑12 — which transferred the former Adelita Concrain Junior High School campus to the Port Authority in exchange for a 35,000‑square‑foot warehouse for the Department of Education school lunch program — by directing the Port Authority to assist with design, retrofitting and renovation of an existing warehouse at parcels listed in the bill (Gasworks/Gasberg’s Gut). The Department of Education instead urged that the same warehouse be newly constructed at the Island Block property it acquired; DOE officials said Island Block better meets the agency’s operational needs.

"Viper is agreeable to take on the task of covering the cost for the construction of the warehouse either doing so exclusively or bringing on a partner to assist with the cost," Carlton Dow, executive director of the Virgin Islands Port Authority, told the committee. But Dow and Port Authority planners said the Gasworks warehouse is beyond repair and that the authority is already spending funds on pre‑development design and demolition estimates. "Viper is already spending $400,000 on pre development plans for the construction of the warehouse," Dow said, and he urged a mechanism that lets the port recover pre‑development and construction costs before any permanent revenue share is paid to the education maintenance fund.

DOE witness Shanille Callwood, speaking for Commissioner Dion Wells Hedrington, said Island Block — the property DOE purchased with FEMA funding for an administration center — offers the district room for district and state offices plus a warehouse footprint. Callwood asked the committee to preserve a funding stream for the Education Maintenance Fund. "Constructing the warehouse at Island Block represents the most efficient path forward to meeting the immediate needs of the Virgin Islands Department of Education," she said, and she asked that the bill be corrected to reference "new construction" rather than retrofit.

The Port Authority requested that any revenue share be calculated on net income and proposed a graduated share (for example, a smaller share to the education fund in early years, rising later) rather than an immediate 50% of gross income. The legislation as originally drafted referenced a 50% remittance to the education maintenance fund; Port Authority counsel said that immediate 50% of gross would leave the authority unable to recoup millions of dollars of demolition and predevelopment costs.

Committee members debated the competing priorities and cost uncertainty. The committee heard that demolition of the former Adelita Concrain campus — a derelict set of buildings with more than 120,000 square feet of debris and hazardous‑materials abatement needs — is already out to bid and that Port Authority planners expected a multi‑million‑dollar construction cost for a new 35,000‑square‑foot warehouse (estimates vary by design and can range from low‑to‑mid single‑digit millions to well into the tens of millions depending on specification and site work).

A motion to hold the bill for further consideration was made and seconded on the record and carried without a roll‑call vote; the committee recorded that Bill 36‑0065 is held pending additional negotiations between the Port Authority and DOE. The motion to hold was initiated in committee by Senator Franklin D. Johnson and seconded as recorded by Senator Maurice C. James; the committee did not record a formal roll‑call tally.

Committee members asked the agencies to return quickly with clarified language: corrected property descriptions, a clear definition of whether the revenue share is calculated on net or gross income, and a proposed phased or graduated revenue share that allows the Port Authority to recover predevelopment and demolition costs before the final revenue split is applied. The chair asked the bill sponsor and agency leadership to convene and present amendment language before the measure returns to committee.