Baja California Governor Marina del Pilar Ávila Olmeda has reversed the state’s 2024 expropriation order targeting two parcels owned by Hutchinson Ports Holding in Punta Colonet, about 130 kilometers south of Ensenada. The reversal was published May 15, 2026, in the state’s official gazette, voiding a Public Utility Declaration issued in June 2024.
The cancellation came after the federal Secretaría de Marina (Mexico’s Navy Ministry) moved forward with its own port concession at the same site, effectively superseding the state government’s initiative. The decision marks a clear shift in control over the long-debated deep-water port project from state to federal hands.
Two Years of Legal Tension
In June 2024, the Baja California Congress approved the Public Utility Declaration at the request of the state’s General Secretariat of Government. The decree targeted two Hutchinson Ports properties: one spanning more than 1.1 million square meters and a second of roughly 554,000 square meters. Both parcels sit in the Punta Colonet delegation of Ensenada municipality.
Hutchinson Ports, a Hong Kong-based company and one of the world’s largest port operators, acquired the land roughly 18 years ago through its subsidiary Internacional de Contenedores de Veracruz S.A. de C.V. The company purchased the parcels when it was competing for a concession to build the original Punta Colonet port, a project that was officially canceled in 2008.
At the time of the 2024 expropriation decree, Hutchinson Ports publicly expressed surprise at being excluded from planning. “It surprises us not to form part of the project from the beginning,” the company said in a July 2024 statement reported by Semanario ZETA. The firm said it remained willing to develop the site and cited its global experience managing port terminals.
A Decades-Old Port Dream
Punta Colonet has been discussed as a potential Pacific coast megaport for nearly two decades. Located about 230 kilometers south of the U.S. border, the bay was once envisioned as a rival to Long Beach, California, capable of handling deep-sea cargo vessels bound for Asian trade routes. Early projections during the Felipe Calderón administration imagined it becoming one of the three largest ports in the world.
Those ambitions stalled repeatedly. The original project collapsed in 2008 amid the global financial crisis. At that time, Hutchinson Ports, SSA México, and a Japanese consortium called Puerto Colonet Infraestructura were all competing for the concession.
With the federal Secretaría de Marina now holding the port concession process, the state government’s withdrawal could clear the path for a federally led development. Whether Hutchinson Ports will participate in the new framework remains unclear.
The story was first reported by Ensenada.net.