COOS BAY - Sen. Joanne Verger announced Friday the U.S.-based operating division of A.P. Moller-Maersk, the largest container ship company in the world - with an annual revenue double that of Nike - has Coos Bay's North Spit on its short list for a new container terminal.

How short is the list?

Coos Bay is one of three ports in the running for selection.

Two rival sites, one located in British Columbia, the other in Mexico, also want the business.

Maersk will decide in November which location it has chosen, Verger said. If Coos Bay is selected, it could mean up to 300 jobs for longshoremen, as well as the potential to attract other economic interests.

Verger broke the news Friday at a town hall meeting at the Coos Bay Public Library. She said she met with Maersk representatives, other state legislators and some Oregon International Port of Coos Bay officials in Salem in February to discuss the project. It was at that time when Verger was given documents from Maersk officials detailing the company's fiscal solvency, recent growth and reasons for wanting to come to Coos Bay.

It was the company's sales pitch.

At Friday's meeting, Verger mentioned the February meeting and held up the small bound packet filled with Maersk's fiscal highlights (see box, Page A5).

Verger told the crowd of 30 or so in attendance that she was compelled to disclose the name of the company, headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark, because of a tide of naysayers who, until Friday, didn't believe the port had a big fish dangling on its line.

Verger sought to dispense with the fog of suspicion.

“The people from the Port of Coos Bay have signed a confidentiality agreement,” Verger said. “So they will not tell you the name of the company. I am not sworn to confidentiality. They gave me this,” the Democrat from Coos Bay said, holding up the packet. “This is a public document.”

On Friday afternoon, Port of Coos Bay Director of Communications and Freight Mobility Martin Callery would not confirm or deny if Maersk was the port's project code-named “April,” whose owners want to build a $300 million to $700 million terminal on the North Spit.

Port officials, Callery said, are still bound by a confidentiality agreement.

“It wouldn't matter who this was. As far as the port is concerned,” Callery said, “it's still a frog, an entity that we are going to keep kissing until it isn't a frog.”

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Just over a month ago, Verger announced Senate Bill 21, which proposed setting aside $60 million of unallocated Oregon Lottery money to pay for a loan to widen and deepen Coos Bay's lower shipping channel. Verger dropped the bill, dubbed The Oregon Gateway, after 18 months of work with the Southwest Oregon Economic Expansion and Transportation Team, a hodgepodge of private entities such as Harry & David based in Medford, Roseburg Forest Products, Central Union & Pacific Railroad and 13 legislators including Rep. Arnie Roblan, D-Coos Bay; Rep. Susan Morgan, R-Myrtle Creek; and former Sen. Ken Messerle.

The bill was touted to aid Southern Oregon, helping several counties including Coos, Douglas, Curry, Jackson and Josephine - all who see Coos Bay's port as a potential gateway to their success. Ninety percent of the imports would be shipped out by rail.

On Friday, Verger tied the bill, which she called her No. 1 priority, directly to the Maersk terminal.

“The dredging of the channel came about because a container company has Coos Bay in the finals for a company to locate here and to work here on the North Spit,” Verger said.

Maersk is asking the state of Oregon to pay $60 million for the project, Verger said. According to Maersk documents, the company needs 275 acres for its multi-user terminal and 4,000 feet of berthing space. The company seeks an estimated annual capacity of more than 2 million 20-foot-long standard-sized containers. A terminal that size would eventually rival the Port of Tacoma.

Verger plans to make that happen ... incrementally.

“I don't want to impact the state in some big way,” Verger said.

Instead, she wants the company to get $5 million from the state in this session.

But there's a catch.

“That $5 million is triggered by a signed agreement with this company that they are going to build the $250 million plant out on the North Spit,” Verger said.

The money would pay for the environmental work and permitting to get the company ready for approval from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers - a process that would take about two years, Verger said. If the corps approves of Maersk's environmental work, that would trigger another $10 million in the following biennium, and another $45 million paid in the next biennium.

If the project met no significant bumps in the road, Verger said it would be completed by 2014.

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Verger said what drew the company to Coos Bay was the relatively short 7-mile haul from the ocean to the North Spit, which would save precious fuel costs for the company. In addition, Coos Bay provides access to the one of the world's largest trade lanes. Lastly, the Pacific Northwest has a vast shortfall when it comes to container capacity.

While the project may take too much time for some, Verger said, it would give local governments and private businesses time to “prepare for that kind of growth.”

Verger said, to date, the first installment of $5 million is not in Gov. Ted Kulongoski's budget, nor in the budget of the key committee chairpersons. But the bill is soon scheduled to come before the Senate's Ways and Means Subcommittee on Transportation and Economic Development.

One audience member suggested that the Oregon Gateway project was also tied to Jordan Cove's plans to develop a liquefied natural gas terminal on the North Spit - what would become a neighbor to Maersk.

“They're not connected,” Verger shot back.

And, she said, the decision is forthcoming.

“You're going to know soon,” Verger said. “This isn't looking off in 2010. You're going to know in November whether they are going to say, ‘We like Coos Bay.'”