CLARINGTON — The Monroe County Port Authority snagged nearly $3 million to fund a project at the Powhatan No. 7 development site.

The authority recently announced it was awarded the money for infrastructure work. Jason Hamman, director of the Monroe County Port Authority, said the county secured a $1,515,725 Maritime Assistance Program grant from the Ohio Department of Transportation, along with a $1,212,580 partial grant through the Ohio Development Services Agency’s Rural Industrial Park Loan program. Hamman said the Rural Industrial Park Loan is 60 percent forgiven, while 40 percent of that money is a loan.

“The Rural Industrial Park Loan is 40 percent of the total project cost, so the $1.2 million is 40 percent of the $3 million project and only 40 percent of the total Industrial Park program amount is a loan,” he said.

The funding will aid in the $3 million site development project of Powhatan No. 7, located just south of Clarington. The port authority acquired the 70-acre riverfront site in 2018 in an effort to expand economic development in the county. The former Consol Energy property is located along the county’s industrial corridor, giving it proximity to the Hannibal Industrial Park, Long Ridge Energy Terminal and the planned Mountaineer NGL storage facility, according to a release. It previously was used for transloading.

Hamman said the impending project includes the construction of an industrial access road and the repair of eight of the 12 existing barge cells located along the Ohio River. The engineering, design and permit work is currently underway with construction expected to begin sometime in the summer. Hamman said the project’s construction should take around six months to complete.

Hamman said the port authority conducted a significant amount of due diligence on the site over the past few years.

“We’re excited to begin adding the infrastructure needed so that this site can be shovel-ready for development,” he said.

Once the project is complete, the property will either be leased or sold to interested companies.

“We’ve had interest in the past, and having these improvements done to the site will only increase interest,” he said.

Hamman said he believes there will be opportunities in the near future to lease the property to companies that provide support services to the shale gas industry. Additionally, he said the site could attract companies operating in petrochemicals, plastics and other energy intensive industry sectors that can benefit from the region’s abundant and inexpensive natural resources.

In 2015, the Monroe County Board of Commissioners established the Monroe County Port Authority to help advance economic and real estate development efforts in the county.