The Port of Long Beach is negotiating...

The Port of Long Beach is negotiating purchase of a 72-acre harbor site that includes the old Ford Motor Co. automobile plant, which closed in 1959.

Harbor commissioners have decided to spend $70,000, mostly for appraisals and title checks on the property, which is just east of Henry Ford Avenue on the Cerritos Channel.

The port, in negotiations for about a year, hopes to buy the old 20-acre auto plant site and an adjoining parcel of about 50 acres, said James Larsen, director of real estate. Price for both probably will be “somewhere in the $10 million-plus range,” he said.

The crowded 1,400-acre port is land poor, say officials, and it is particularly interested in privately held parcels on the harbor channels. About 400 port acres are owned privately, mostly by oil companies.

Only about 25 of the 72 total acres in the Ford deal would be immediately available for port use, because most of the land is dotted with producing oil wells, said Larsen. The old auto plant, now used as a warehouse, probably would be torn down, he said.