Planned sale raising hopes in Galilee

The planned return of fish processing to what long has been known locally as the Point Judith Fishermen’s Cooperative in Narragansett is more than a real estate transaction to community leaders and local fishermen, who have seen regulations and recession take a bite out of their business for the last few years.
It’s a sign of hope for an industry in transition but still vital to the health of the local economy.
Seafreeze Ltd. of North Kingstown will purchase and rehabilitate the former Slavin Point Judith Co. plant on State Street. Seafreeze currently leases a Quonset Point facility from the R.I. Economic Development Corporation. The EDC helped ease the way to negotiating another lease for the building on the Galilee dock, according to the state.
“This is great for the port, great for the state and great for the fishermen,” said Richard L. Fuka, president of the Rhode Island Fisherman’s Alliance. “Slavin hasn’t run for a while and was owned by a big New York company. This business will be Rhode Island-owned,” he said.
For years the only large processor in the port has been The Town Dock. With Seafreeze moving in, the two will sometimes compete for the same fisheries, a competition that Fuka believes will be healthy for everybody.
“It’s an extremely important waterfront footprint that should be continued to be occupied by the commercial fishing industry,” he explained. “When you lose a piece of waterfront footprint it means you’re losing industry.
“In Galilee that’s important, because losing industry creates anxiety and that’s really something we don’t need,” he continued. “It’s also important because it’s an in-state company leasing state-owned property, and that shows the state is encouraging in-state companies to flourish.”
The details of the transaction are typical for many facilities in the port of Galilee. The state owns the land and maintains a lease with the building owner. For a transaction to occur, the building owner sells to a new entity that must then negotiate a lease with the state. A closing on the sale was expected this month. “We are delighted there is going to be a business with vitality that is going into the site,” said Mary Kay, chief legal counsel for the R.I. Department of Environmental Management. “It’s been a number of years since the Slavin people have operated the facility. It’s going to be a shot in the arm for the commercial fishing industry,” Kay said. The new lease is for five years with seven, five-year options for the company, for a total of 40 years.
Seafreeze specializes in the business of freshly frozen seafood and has become successful thanks in part to its deep water port and proximity to a railway system. The company in owned by local residents Glenn, Kyle and Richard Goodwin. Seafreeze is one of the larger seafood distributors in the Northeast. The company has made its name in dealing with fish that are caught and frozen offshore. They own two boats, the F/V Persistence and the F/V Relentless, and they also conduct business with other boats that can freeze their catch. Their expertise is in international shipping and receiving of frozen fish. Exported species commonly include squid and mackerel.
Being older, the Narragansett facility is a different type of plant than the Seafreeze location in North Kingstown. It is a traditional fish-processing plant, where the day’s catch can be offloaded from the fishing boat and into the building for sorting, preparation, refrigeration and shipping. According to Geir Monsen, vice president of Seafreeze, the facility will give the company exposure to other opportunities. “It will enable us to get into more of the local markets as well as increase our frozen business,” he said.
The Narragansett building had been owned by the Slavin Point Judith Co., a part of M. Slavin & Sons Ltd. out of New York City. Once the largest seafood distributor on the East Coast, Slavin experienced financial difficulties and was also on the losing end of a $900,000 equal opportunity employment lawsuit. The company filed for bankruptcy in February 2011 and its plan for reorganization was approved on Nov. 30. When last operating, the building processed mostly squid and employed about 60 people.
With Seafreeze taking over the building, “it will encourage the boats to use the fish houses – which have established strong niche markets – rather to try and sell on their own, which is very hard to do,” said Fuka. “There are also a lot of out-of-state boats that have landing permits in Rhode Island, so they could potentially offload here. Depending on the circumstances, it could be easier to offload here than in a place like Cape May, N.J.”
All of which would be good news for independent local fishermen, many of whom are struggling to survive.
Federal and state regulators have adopted a policy of developing “catch share” regulations that give set quotas to individual fishermen. The system is praised by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and several environmental organizations as being the savior of fish stocks.
Smaller fishermen locally across the nation say it’s forcing them to get out of their profession and recent studies agree. This past November Food & Water Watch, a national consumer advocacy group, released a report on the effects of the catch shares in the Gulf of Mexico. It concluded the system largely gives public resources – fishing – to private entities. Smaller-scale, traditional fishermen are either consolidated and absorbed or put out of business.
Narragansett Town Manager Grady Miller serves on a Rhode Island House task force studying that issue and others affecting local fishermen. While there are still plenty of problems to resolve, getting the old Point Judith Fishermen’s Cooperative site operating again is eagerly anticipated.
“Both the economy and problems with regulatory controls that face the local fishermen have been a concern to the town,” he said. “The town council and the community are thrilled to have the facility back in operation.” •

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