Pasha Vows Its Sincerity on Car Import Terminal

The import car processing company that has proposed operating a 38-acre terminal on San Diego Harbor insists it is being forced to expand here because of high rent, congestion and overcrowding in Long Beach, a port that increasingly is concentrating on container cargo.

But officials at Pasha Group, based in Corte Madera in Marin County, are also in the midst of negotiating a new lease of their existing 80-acre Long Beach facility, raising the question of whether the talks with the San Diego Unified Port District are designed to gain leverage for a better deal up the coast.

San Diego port operations director Don Hillman said the port has no choice but to take Pasha’s “inquiries and tentative proposal as serious ones.” According to the proposal, Pasha would operate on two separate parcels at the National City Marine Terminal.

“There is always the chance this could be an attempt to drive down rates in Long Beach,” Hillman said. “But if we keep moving at the rate we are, we would imagine we would be back to the (Board of Port Commissioners) within two to five months with an agreement.”

After a year of discussions, the commissioners last week gave conceptual approval to Pasha’s terminal proposal and directed staff to negotiate an agreement that could lead to a facility processing 50,000 to 70,000 cars a year from the Orient and Europe. Such a facility would employ about 100 and attract one or two ship calls per week.

The terminal could generate between $1 million and $1.4 million in port revenue a year, Hillman said, and give the port’s anemic cargo ship traffic a needed boost.

Jim Hull, senior vice president of Pasha, said the company’s intention to set up shop in San Diego is serious. “When we sign a contract with San Diego, it ought to be clear to everyone that we aren’t using San Diego as a bargaining chip,” he said, adding that Pasha hopes to sign a lease in 60 days.

The San Diego facility would be Pasha’s third on the West Coast. The company handles 300,000 cars a year through facilities in Long Beach; Richmond, Calif., and Philadelphia. It is the largest independent, or non-manufacturer-owned, import car processor on the West Coast, Hull said.

He emphasized that the San Diego facility would be an expansion--not a relocation--of the Long Beach facilities, where the company processes a range of makes, from Honda and Isuzu to Volkswagen and Volvo. But Pasha increasingly feels overlooked and under-appreciated by a Long Beach port that is trying to boost its container volume, already the largest on the West Coast.

Refusing to comment on its lease negotiations with Pasha, Long Beach port Executive Director Joseph Prevratil did concede that his port could not accommodate a 25-acre expansion request by Pasha. A $150-million expansion of that port is under way, including a 147-acre landfill, but is devoted primarily to container business, he said.

No Auto Agreements Yet

Pasha has yet to obtain firm agreements from auto manufacturers to ship cars to San Diego, but that’s not unusual, Hillman said. “They have to go out and solicit auto manufacturers and attract them to San Diego,” he said. “It won’t happen overnight.”

At least one manufacturer, American Honda Motor Car of Gardena, which accounts for roughly 20% of Pasha’s volume in Long Beach, said it has no interest in moving car processing to San Diego.

“We are set up to have close inspection of our cars. And with us being right next door (to Long Beach), it doesn’t make a lot of sense to move to San Diego,” said American Honda spokesman Mike Spencer.

Pasha’s San Diego proposal has raised other questions about cost-effectiveness since San Diego lacks direct rail access to Eastern shipping points and because the rugged mountains to the east of the city would seem to preclude transporting cars and trucks by highway.