🔒As New Haven’s port grows, it’s drawing new companies to the region

Instead of hosting the media at his new Hamden headquarters, FullStack Modular President Roger Krulak chose another location for a big announcement in April — the Port of New Haven.

There, he publicly revealed that he would be moving his company and more than 100 jobs from New York City to Connecticut.

With massive bulk cargo ships looming in the background, Krulak and a bevy of state and local officials gathered at the port’s Gateway Terminal to discuss the motivation and economic impact of FullStack’s relocation.

The company builds modular components for housing with an eye toward sustainability and efficiency, and requires dependable transport for both its raw materials and finished products.

“We’re super excited about the partnership with Gateway Terminal and the logistics side of our business,” Krulak said.

He added that the company had looked at ports up and down the East Coast and chose New Haven for its central location and responsive management.

“This port is a huge deal for transporting materials and finished products to places all over the United States,” Krulak said. “It’s such an integral part of moving large pieces of a building, … and so we’re super excited that I don’t have to worry about it anymore.”

Gov. Ned Lamont praised the efforts of the port operators in helping FullStack make its decision to move to Hamden, noting the company depends on logistics and “requires easy access in and out for the supply chain.”

“Gateway made such an enormous difference putting that relationship together,” Lamont said.

The news event’s location at Gateway Terminal reflects the growing importance of the Port of New Haven in the region’s economic outlook — and its impact on drawing new companies to the state.

Already New England’s second-largest commercial port by tonnage, New Haven is expected to grow in importance in tandem with increased manufacturing and construction activity in the region.

Ports like New Haven, which handle bulk cargo, have also benefited from the COVID-19 pandemic, due to a shift away from the container transport of goods because of the supply-chain crisis, according to the American Journal of Transportation.

Breakbulk — or bulk cargo shipped in discrete units like bags or barrels without use of containers — recorded double- and triple-digit growth in volume at ports across the nation in 2022, including at East Coast commercial ports like New Haven, the journal said.

The recent growth in demand for timber and breakbulk cargo may offset the drop in shipments of fuel oil and other petroleum products due to recent warm winters as the port tallies its tonnage, said Sally Kruse, executive director of the New Haven Port Authority.

Tackling housing shortage

New Haven’s appeal as a port is projected to only grow when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers finishes a planned $63 million dredging project, a multiphase effort slated to start by October 2025.

A deeper port is projected to generate $99 million in additional revenue, about 1,000 new jobs and $51 million more in wages and benefits, according to the Corps’ economic analysis.

The dredging, which will take New Haven Harbor’s navigation channel from its current depth of 35 feet to 40 feet, will allow for larger vessels to bring in more product per voyage, and fewer overall trips.

“It will be a much more efficient manner of getting the same amount of product into New Haven,” Kruse said.

Statistics on recent tonnage at the port aren’t yet available, Kruse said, but she expects to see steady increases in volume of both imports and exports for the past year.

Port occupants that have seen growth and increased demand include biofuel maker American Green Fuels and the main cargo operators.

American Green Fuels secured approval from the city last year for a 1,400-square-foot addition and is expected to benefit from recent state laws requiring expanded use of biodiesel.

The New Haven area’s recent housing development boom has also helped fuel demand for the port’s bulk cargo products, Kruse said.

“The more we get in the way of construction, the more activity there is,” Kruse said. “We have a housing shortage, and that’s one of the reasons it’s so exciting to have FullStack Modular in the port.”

Weeks after FullStack’s announcement, another construction-related company, Blueprint of Baltimore, announced it would open a major facility in Windsor.

The company said it would use state-of-the-art engineering to both build its facility and produce housing components there using mass timber, a new method of creating thick, compressed layers of wood that can serve as load-bearing elements in construction.

Although Blueprint officials didn’t single out access to ports, they did cite the Windsor location for its “ease of distribution” and “support infrastructure” in announcing the construction of a new 450,000-square-foot plant to build wood-framed building components.

Taking market share

As New Haven’s port continues to grow, Gateway Terminal, its main cargo operator, is seeking to expand, said Matthew Satnick, co-CEO of Enstructure, Gateway’s parent company.

Based in Wellesley, Mass., Enstructure runs 20 terminals in nine states — making it the largest bulk and breakbulk terminal operator in the nation. The company also runs New London’s port on contract with the state as a hub for offshore wind construction.

Gateway Terminal’s facilities in New Haven include a 750-foot finger pier, two docks and a 225-foot wharf, along with a tank farm with a capacity of 650,000 barrels of fuel. The company currently occupies 60 acres of land and is looking for more, Satnick said.

“Whenever there’s available, industrially-zoned property that’s port-centric, we look at it very closely,” Satick said. “The restriction is always land availability.”

Piles of scrap metal and de-icing salt take up lots of real estate at the port and need to turn over to make room for other cargo storage, he added.

Demand for the New Haven port’s main bulk cargo — concrete raw materials, fertilizer, salts, scrap steel and lumber — has been steady even with recent supply chain disruptions and economic swings, Satnick said.

Demand for lumber, when used by specialty companies like FullStack Modular, doesn’t necessarily track with macroeconomic trends, he added.

“With FullStack, you’re going to continue to take market share, even in a slower market,” Satnick said. “You’re going to have growth, which is why we’re excited to welcome FullStack.”