It has been the signature project that Lima Mayor David Berger has worked on, planned for and dreamed of for about a decade and a half.
U-S-A Synthetic Fuel Corporation, which is a public company started by Global Energy, which is a privately held company, has announced that "Third Eye Capital", an investor out of Toronto, Canada has invested 35 million dollars in the project.
The former Lima Locomotive Works site has sat empty for years ready for development, but Berger says although only a small portion of the money needed to begin the 400 million dollar first phase has been raised, it allows a few things to happen.
This project has changed over the years. It was to be a gasification plant to produce electricity and that could still happen, but primarily it is now being designed to take solid hydrocarbons such as coal and petroleum coke and turn it into low cost synthetic fuel products for the gasoline, jet fuel and diesel markets.
And despite the skeptics, Berger is still 100 percent on board with this project.
Lima City Council will see legislation at its next meeting that will allow the mayor to sell the property for 1.5 million dollars. That amount covers the city's cost to buy and prepare the property for development.
When all three phases are complete, the Lima Energy project will be a 2 billion dollar investment.
