Rally for Navy projects

A rally is planned to show support for a shipyard project for Lorain and Lordstown:

When: 10 a.m. Monday.

Where: Black River Landing Amphitheater, 421 Black River Lane, Lorain.

Who: Representatives from the company proposing the project, Bartlett Maritime Corp., leaders from labor unions, government leaders, others

The company proposing to build a shipyard in Lorain and to locate an affiliate supply, equipment and service depot in Lordstown will by joined by union leaders and elected officials next week to rally behind the multibillion project at the city on the lake.

Planned to join Bartlett Maritime Corp. at Monday’s event in Lorain are representatives from the Ohio AFL-CIO, the AFL-CIO’s Metal Trades Department and U.S. lawmakers, U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Howland, and Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio.

Bartlett Maritime Corp., led by former Navy Capt. Ed Bartlett, is the Broadview Heights-based company behind the plan to construct a new submarine drydock facility in Lorain and the component repair facility in Lordstown at the Ohio Commerce Center.

“Union workers built this country and strengthened our national security. Ohioans in Lorain, Lordstown and across the state are ready now to do our part by expanding and improving our naval shipyard performance,” said Tim Burga, president, Ohio AFL-CIO.

“Strategic investments in the Marine Highway are crucial to the Navy’s efficiencies, and readiness and workers in Ohio and the Great Lakes region have what it takes to advance this mission,” he said.

Proposed for on the Black River in Lorain, the facility would be the fifth public naval shipyard in the U.S.

In Lordstown, the proposed 700,000- to 1 million-square-foot depot would be designed to accommodate growth to service Lorain and the other existing shipyards in Portsmouth, N.H.; Norfolk, Va.; Pearl Harbor, Hawaii; and Puget Sound, Wash.

The facilities, Bartlett has said, would help to ease a maintenance logjam in the Navy.

Bartlett predicts about 1,000 workers in Lordstown and about 3,000 in Lorain, but that workforce could grow if the Navy grows its submarine numbers, “so our plan is to create facilities with room to grow in both of them.”

Bartlett Maritime’s proposal would need Navy approval. The plan would include a public / private partnership through existing legislation that allows for capital financing to build the facilities, Bartlett said.

Industrial revenue bonds would be used for funding to build and equip the buildings. The Navy would lease from Bartlett Maritime and own the facilities after 30 years.

Goldman Sachs has been brought on as a financial adviser.

Bartlett said his proposal “builds on Ohio’s long heritage of support for the U.S. Navy and leverages the state’s abundant resources and world-class union workforce to help the Navy address the national security challenges associated with both nuclear-powered ship maintenance and submarine construction.”

Today, Bartlett is scheduled to speak at the Northern Ohio Business Roundtable at the Avalon Inn in Howland.

rselak@tribtoday.com