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The Port of Port Arthur was given the green light from the city’s economic development corporation board for a land purchase.

The land, which was formerly a commercial site, is located on the city’s West Side along Rev. Dr. Ransom Howard Street/7^th Street.

The land will be used for transportation access and come with an investment by the Port, according to Larry Kelley, CEO and director of the Port.

With the purchase comes some work to clean up the blight in that area.

The first task the Port plans to tackle is clean up, remove abandoned slabs and utilities that are no longer active and reestablish some positive drainage in the area.

From there officials plan to stabilize the area and plan for future development, Kelley said.

Port leaders have been busy with other projects, which include renovating buildings along Houston Avenue. This led to a tenant and leased property and the property getting back on the tax roll.

Kelley promised more announcements in the near future showing the growth of the Port.

Earlier this year U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigeg toured and spoke at the Port regarding President Joe Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and a $13 million grant awarded to the Port.

The Rebuilding American Infrastructure and Sustainability Equity (RAISE) Grant will, in part, go towards transforming approximately 30 acres of land. “Another facet of this project: we’ll take down a couple dilapidated buildings in this area and we’ll turn them into uses suitable for this port,” Kelley said during the February visit.

“And the other one and probably closest to my heart, there’s a building on Houston Avenue… For several reasons — one, a resiliency for the realignment of the pending levee wall and also because the port is growing, we have a building that we’re going to restore and it’ll become part of the port offices and the bottom floor will be for community meeting space.”

These projects are currently in the works.