AquaBounty hires global agency to find 'best outcome' for farm site
Former land-based salmon farmer AquaBounty Technologies, Inc. has engaged Toronto-based international real estate company Colliers as its exclusive agent and advisor for its mothballed fish farm construction site in Pioneer, Ohio, in the Midwestern United States.
A 10,000-tonnes-per-year recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) facility was planned for the site but construction, which was only 30% complete, was halted when costs rocketed and AquaBounty ran out of money.
The company has an accumulated deficit - the difference between its total lifetime losses and profits - of more than US $391 million, and has already sold off its RAS facilities in Albany, Indiana, and on Prince Edward Island, Canada, for bargain basement prices. The Pioneer site is its only remaining asset of any significant value.
Infrastructure assets
AquaBounty previously announced that it was broadening its evaluation of strategic alternatives for the site to maximise shareholder value. It points out that the Pioneer campus possesses a unique combination of infrastructure assets, including access to an existing electrical substation with approximately 50 megawatts of available capacity, competitively priced electricity, and a permit to withdraw 5.25 million gallons (19.9 millions litres) per day of groundwater from a high-capacity underground aquifer. Management believes these assets may be attractive to participants in power generation, energy-intensive industrial applications, and data centre infrastructure.
“The engagement of Colliers as AquaBounty’s exclusive real estate agent and advisor for the property will provide the company with their deep expertise in the industrial sector, coupled with long-standing relationships across developers, operators, and end-users of scale to maximise the visibility and impact of this opportunity,” said David Frank, interim chief executive of AquaBounty.
“Colliers has developed a thoughtful, comprehensive strategy designed not only to generate broad exposure through proven marketing channels, but also to deploy targeted, creative outreach to the most relevant audience of active developers, users, and decision-makers.
“We will continue to engage in discussions with aquaculture companies in concert with our commencement of outreach to industrial players in order to achieve the best outcome for this asset.”
