Watco Transloading bought Kinder Morgan’s Port Sutton property in Tampa for $56.42 million as part of a broader deal that puts two of Kinder Morgan’s Tampa Bay terminal businesses under Watco’s control.
The Tampa property covers two parcels at 4801 Port Sutton Road, records show. The larger spans about 92 acres and contains nearly 187,000 square feet of buildings.
Kinder Morgan has operated the site as its Tampaplex Terminal, where it handles bulk materials ranging from fertilizer and animal feed to scrap metal, aggregate and coal. The terminal sits along the Port Sutton Channel with access to CSX rail.
Its infrastructure includes two ship docks and 41,000 feet of rail track, enough to accommodate four 100-car trains, along with open storage, truck dumps, rail unloading pits and floating cranes used to transfer cargo between vessels and land.
The Port Sutton terminal is one piece of the transaction. Federal Trade Commission records show Watco Holdings is also acquiring Kinder Morgan Port Manatee Terminal LLC and Paddy Ryan Crane LLC. Federal regulators cleared the companies to complete the transaction early on Aug. 20.
Port Tampa Bay considered the deal two days earlier, when its board took up a request to consent to the change in control of Kinder Morgan Port Sutton Terminal.
Watco is a privately held Kansas transportation company with nearly 5,000 employees. It operates short-line railroads, ports and terminals across North America and Australia.