Norfolk-based T. Parker Host is a partner in creation of Louisiana logistics hub

Norfolk-based T. Parker Host is part of a joint venture that plans to turn a shuttered shipyard near New Orleans into a global logistics hub.

Avondale Marine LLC — formed by Host and Illinois-based Hilco Redevelopment Partners — bought the 254-acre former Avondale Shipyards in Louisiana from Newport News-based Huntington Ingalls Industries.

The deal’s cost was not disclosed. According to The Times-Picayune in New Orleans, the property was initially listed for $125 million and later dropped to $95 million.

Avondale Marine said capital investment and job projectiohs will be released as the project develops.

Avondale Shipyards closed in 2014 after building ships for more than 75 years. It once was the largest private employer in Louisiana.

Avondale Marine plans to redevelop the shipyard’s assets, which include cranes, docks, terminals and 8,000 feet of Mississippi frontage while establishing connections with manufacturing and distribution facilities and six rail carriers in the News Orleans area.

Huntington Ingalls Industries will continue to operate an Avondale engineering office employing 350 people at the University of New Orleans Maritime Technology Center of Excellence.

That state-owned building is not included in the property bought by Avondale Marine LLC.

HII’s engineering work at Avondale supports manufacturing at the company’s Ingalls Shipbuilding operations in Pascagoula, Miss.

T. Parker Host, which operates more than 30 maritime agency, terminal and stevedoring sites, has collaborated with Hilco Redevelopment Partners on other projects.

After Hilco bought the former Bethlehem Steel mill at Sparrows Point in Baltimore in 2012, T. Parker Host was brought in as the marine operator for the site now known as Tradepoint Atlantic.