The Northern Plains Commerce Centre has yet to secure an intermodal rail contract or new tenants for the multi-million dollar transloading facility, which is frustrating current tenant Bobcat Co. and is holding off potential tenant Saskan Pulse Trading.

But city officials say an intermodal contract with BNSF Railway is just around the corner.

"In a relatively short time period, they're expecting to have an intermodal rail contract completed," said Gloria David, public information officer for the city.

Intermodal transportation is a high speed, point to point rail service line that has no stops; the rail would run from the Bismarck facility to a Dilworth, Minn., center.

The NPCC is supposed to be a transloading facility, having the ability to load and unload boxcars, flat cars, etc. But while the intermodal contract is pending, the transloading infrastructure, a 48,000-square-foot building that will provide for the transfer of goods along with storage space and maintenance, won't be completed because the intermodal contract dictates the form of the warehouse.

The facility was initially conceived to help meet the transportation needs of Bobcat Co., which recently has been put up for sale.

Richard Pedtke, CEO of Bobcat, said the news of the potential sale of Bobcat shouldn't be off-putting to the railroad, NPCC or the city.

"I wouldn't see (a sale) as any reason for the rail companies or for NPCC or anyone else to be concerned," Pedtke said. "The bigger concern is getting the tenants into that facility that Bobcat was supposed to anchor."

Bobcat moved into a warehouse in that complex in the summer of 2006, signing a 50-year, nearly $100,000-a-year lease for the space, which functions as a manufacturing service center. A piece of rail was routed to the facility, allowing for some boxcar freight and access to the manifest rail line, which has frequent stops.

"(The intermodal rail contract) was a key element in terms of going in to the Northern Plains Commerce Centre," said Pedtke.

At a groundbreaking for the facility last August, Saskan Pulse Trading unveiled plans to begin building a pulse processing facility on the site in fall 2006, effectively basing the United States operations of the company, called United Pulse Trading, in North Dakota. But the Canadian company still hasn't signed a lease, and they've since bought an existing plant in Williston.

The company does remain interested in NPCC, said president and CEO Murad Al-Katib, but he's waiting for more to happen.

"Things have been moving along and there's been a lot of discussion, but the container and intermodal contract isn't completed," Al-Katib said. "Our project requires access to intermodal."

Al-Katib said he plans to headquarter United Pulse Trading in Bismarck. In fact, he said a four-person office is going to open in the city in June and he recently announced that Eric Bartsch, formerly the executive director of the Northern Pulse Growers Association, as general manager of the U.S. operations.

"It shows our continued interest in the developments in Bismarck," he said. "They will work on our operations in the state, which will include the processing plant in Williston and our pursuit to convert acres into lentils."

But to build any sort of facility or plant in Bismarck, the company needs intermodal access.

"Rail is only one component of it," Al-Katib said. "It's container and intermodal that needs to continue to move along. We're working with the BMDA (Bismarck-Mandan Development Association) and with the mayor and the congressional delegation to continue this further."

Those groups are still working hard on it, city officials said.

"Basically, we got into the BNSF contract, and there's a lot of different areas that we had to address in the contract," said Kathy Spencer with Mallory Alexander International Logistics, which operates NPCC. "And then we had to go out and talk to our customers and see what they would commit to."

"BNSF will not provide specifics on past discussions," Gus Melonas, a spokesman for BNSF, said in response to questions about what the company requires to serve an area intermodally.

Pedtke said Bobcat is prepared to make a commitment to a reasonable number of containers, adding that the issue may be of having enough service into the area that will justify the rail spurs into it

"To me, the burden is on the NPCC to be able to negotiate for rail service for us based on Bobcat alone," he said. "I can't commit to more containers than I need. Everybody has to be realistic as to what Bobcat can do and can't do."

Lance Gaebe, transportation policy adviser for Gov. John Hoeven, said it's a challenging chicken and egg scenario, but added that the facility can't be a full-fledged rail yard right away.

"In order to build the facility, you need the product to ship," Gaebe said. "Right now, we'll need the tenants to generate the product."

So far, though, there's only Bobcat.

"The issue really is that the NPCC is still basically Bobcat. And NPCC was supposed to be a number of businesses there," said Pedtke. "They're behind in terms of getting other companies set up."

But a timeframe as for when it could all happen is still vague. In fact, there was never any written commitment to Bobcat or Saskan for any sort of intermodal rail contract deadline, said Charlie Whitman, city attorney.

Whitman and Spencer both said they are under confidentiality agreements and therefore cannot discuss any issues dealing directly with the BNSF contract.

David said the mayor is certain that an intermodal contract will be secured soon.

"He is very confident and optimistic that we are going to secure an intermodal rail contract in the not so distant future," David said.

Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., an avid supporter of the facility from inception, said he continues to be optimistic.

"You never quite know what the timing would be, " Dorgan said. "When you've got a lot of moving pieces, it's pretty hard to predict how long it's going to take."

(Reach reporter Crystal R. Reid at 250-8261 or at crystal.reid@bismarcktribune.com.)