Muskegon Sun

A West Michigan company purchased the former site of the B.C. Cobb Generating Plant from Forsite Development of North Carolina, Wood TV reported.

Verplank Dock Co. purchased the property from Forsite, but the details of the sale were not disclosed.

Verplank is a port terminal operator out of Ferrysburg. Verplank has decided that it will consolidate several other commercial dock operations that are along Muskegon Lake at its newly purchased site.

The company told Wood TV that it would be relocating its operations to the former Cobb site so that it can free up two of its lakefront sites and redevelop them, and also reduce the number of trucks that will be driving through town.

The company also wants to transform the site into a facility that can do a wide range of things, including servicing various maritime freight.

Consumer Energy shut down the Cobb plant in 2016 after nearly 70 years of operation, and the following year Forsite purchased it. Forsite also purchased the former J.R. Whiting plant in Luna Pier outside of Monroe.

The Cobb plant was then decommissioned and demolished in January, Fox 17 reported.

The Michigan Public Service Commission approved a request in September 2017 for Forsite to take ownership of the property, according to Fox 17. Forsite's plan was to convert the plant into a deep-water marine terminal.

Forsite CEO Tom McKittrick told MiBiz that decommissioning the structure was a large undertaking. Forsite had been looking for retired coal plants nationwide for development. 

Verplank told MiBiz that it planned to focus on activating the dock immediately with construction aggregates because that is its main line of business. “Hopefully some cross-lake short-sea shipping will take off as well,” Verplank CEO Ron Matthews said, according to MiBiz.