A Cowlitz County judge ruled Friday the Port of Longview has the right to repurchase a 35-acre parcel of it sold to Tacoma-based Simpson Timber three years ago, only to see Simpson turn around and double its money by selling it off in December.

Port officials don’t know when, or if, they will buy back the land or how much it would cost.

Superior Court Judge Stephen Warning’s ruling was a victory for the port, which had anticipated repurchasing the land this year and was shocked when Simpson sold it to Daybreak Dispatch for $4.3 million.

“We certainly always believed that our repurchase option was valid,” Port Director Ken O’Hollaren said after Friday’s ruling.

Simpson paid $2.16 million for the 35-acre parcel in 2005, promising to build a 170-job sawmill within three years or sell the land back to the port. The company bought the Caffall Bros. sawmill in Longview in 2007, fueling speculation Simpson would choose not to build at the port. Simpson officials nevertheless insisted they were still considering building the new mill.

Simpson gave the port the first right to repurchase the parcel in September. The port refused to block the sale to Daybreak, but port officials notified Simpson they would seek to repurchase the land this year.

“It’s not as though Simpson is committing some act of skulduggery to circumvent the port’s right… to the property,” Mike Dwyer, Simpson’s attorney, told Judge Warning.

Many questions remain unanswered in the wake of Friday’s ruling: How much is the land worth? When can the port buy the land back, and from whom — Simpson or Daybreak, its current legal owner? What will happen to Daybreak’s plan to develop the land? Will the port have the money or desire to pay the appraised value of the industrial parcel?

The land must be appraised to determine a fair-market value, which will likely take months, said Frank Randolph, the port’s attorney. Also, legal issues over access to the land or potential sanctions exist, and the port doesn’t yet know whether it will repurchase the land directly from Daybreak or work out a deal through Simpson, Randolph said.

Daybreak’s owner, Gene Teel, could not be reached for comment at the Longview-based business Friday. Last month, Teel said the company is moving forward with the plans to develop the site into a distribution center to transport cargo from places as far away as Hawaii, Guam and Alaska.

Daybreak currently has an operation on California that employs 22 people. The company did not determine how many people would work at the port site.

Warning refused to allow the port to block Simpson’s sale of the parcel to Daybreak last fall. Friday, he said Simpson gave no indication it at the time that it had abandoned its plans to build the sawmill, which would have triggered the port’s right of repurchase.

As soon as Simpson decided not to build the sawmill, the port’s right to repurchase the site kicked in, Warning said.

Related articles:

Port to pursue land it sold to Simpson  (Jan. 14)

Port's loss is Simpson's gain in land deal  (Jan. 7)

Simpson sells Port of Longview property; port officials looking to get it back   (Dec. 30, 2008)