ALPENGLOW RAIL AND CC&L INFRASTRUCTURE ACQUIRE ORANGE RAIL TO EXPAND NORTH AMERICAN RAIL BUSINESS

DENVER, Jan. 6, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - Alpenglow Rail (Alpenglow), a Denver-based firm specializing in investing in, operating and growing rail businesses, in partnership with Connor, Clark & Lunn Infrastructure (CC&L Infrastructure), today announced the acquisition of Orange Rail Inc. (Orange Rail) from LJA Investments, Inc., a subsidiary of LJA Engineering Inc. (LJA) based in Houston, Texas. Orange Rail is a newly constructed rail terminal located in Orange, Texas with class 1 railroad access to both the Union Pacific and BNSF railroads. Orange Rail consists of a loop track capable of handling 120 car unit trains along with approximately 600 railcar storage spots. Phase 1 construction of Orange Rail was completed by LJA in the summer of 2021 and today the facility has a diverse base of blue-chip rail customers.

Orange Rail sits on 130 acres of land in Orange, Texas, a growing hub for petrochemical manufacturing. Additionally, Orange Rail is strategically located between Beaumont, Texas and Lake Charles, Louisiana. These two industrial centers are home to the largest refineries and petrochemical plants in North America.

The Orange Rail acquisition is part of the ongoing expansion of CC&L Infrastructure and Alpenglow's established partnership, which was formed in 2019 to develop and operate a diversified portfolio of rail businesses across North America. It will join one of Alpenglow's Gulf Coast portfolio companies, USA Rail Terminals, which has established rail terminals in Port Arthur, Texas and Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The long-term vision of USA Rail Terminals is to be the Gulf Coast's premier partner for rail transportation, transloading, and railcar storage.

Alpenglow and CC&L Infrastructure also own and operate VIP Rail, a rail business that comprises two railcar storage, switching, transloading, and railcar cleaning terminals in Sarnia, Ontario, served by the Canadian National and CSX railroads. Today, the portfolio stores over 4,600 railcars with capacity to expand to nearly 10,000, switches over 60,000 railcars per year, and transloads thousands of railcars from truck to rail and rail to truck of various commodities, including hazmat liquids. With the recent acquisitions of USA Rail Terminals and now Orange Rail, Alpenglow is quickly becoming one of the leading rail terminal owners and operators in North America.

"We are very excited to add Orange Rail to our USA Rail portfolio," said CEO of Alpenglow, Rich Montgomery. "At USA Rail we serve many of the same customers that will benefit from the acquisition of Orange Rail. This provides excellent optionality for our customer base to execute a single agreement with USA Rail while handling their rail needs across multiple terminals and markets. Uniquely positioned to serve core Gulf Coast petrochemical and industrial centers, our new terminal in Orange is truly one of the most versatile rail terminals in the region. In the near future, it will be able to handle unit trains, store more than 1,200 railcars, provide truck to rail or rail to truck transloading services, and offer railcar cleaning and repair to our customers. LJA did an excellent job designing and building this facility."

"The teams at Alpenglow and CC&L Infrastructure executed this complex transaction quickly and professionally, and we worked as a team to make it a success for both parties," said James Ross, President and CEO of LJA Engineering.

"This transaction has strengthened the LJA and Alpenglow relationship," said Mike Baker, President of LJA Infrastructure Inc. "We engineered and constructed both Orange Rail and USA Rail Terminals' most recent terminal in Port Arthur. We were pleased to reach an agreement with Alpenglow and look forward to working with them on future opportunities."

About Alpenglow Rail:

Alpenglow Rail develops and manages freight rail businesses and related transportation assets across North America. Alpenglow Rail currently owns and operates VIP Rail and USA Rail Terminals, which consist of five rail terminals strategically located in leading industrial markets within Canada and the U.S. Gulf Coast. Alpenglow Rail was founded by seasoned railroad executives Rich Montgomery, Darcy Brede, Henning von Kalm, and Josh Huster. For more information, please visit www.alpenglowrail.com, www.usarailterminals.com, or www.viprail.com.

About Connor, Clark & Lunn Infrastructure:

 CC&L Infrastructure invests in middle-market infrastructure with highly attractive risk-return characteristics, long lives, and the potential to generate stable cash flows. CC&L Infrastructure is a part of Connor, Clark & Lunn Financial Group Ltd., a multi-boutique asset management firm whose affiliates collectively manage approximately CAD $100 billion in assets. For more information, please visit www.cclinfrastructure.com.

About LJA Engineering Inc.:

LJA is multi-discipline engineering and consultancy company, offering full-service planning, engineering, surveying, and construction management to public and private sector clients within nine comprehensive sectors: Rail Services, Public Infrastructure, Transportation, Land Development, Energy Services, Surveying, Water Resources, Construction Engineering & Inspection, and Environmental & Coastal. LJA offers one-source, one-stop engineering consultancy for its clients, with 45 offices across the Southeastern US and over 1,300 experienced civil, land and site development, transportation, midstream, rail, and coastal engineers, plus hydrologists, environmental specialists, planners, landscape architects, construction managers, GIS designers, and surveyors. LJA was recently named #57 by ENR National as a Top 500 Design Firm, #41 as a Top Pure Design Firm, and as the 2019 Design Firm of the Year by ENR Texas & Louisiana. For more information about LJA, please visit www.LJA.com.

SOURCE Alpenglow Rail