< Previoussiteselection.com VISIT OUR NEW WEBSITE VISIT OUR NEW WEBSITERAIL PARKS & INLAND PORTS SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION SITE SELECTION NOVEMBER 2024 169 I n September the American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association (ASLRRA), representing the nation’s 600 Class II and III freight railroads, and five of its member railroads presented at the Surface Transportation Board (STB) hearing, “Growth in the Freight Rail Industry, Docket No. EP 775.” Over two days, the hearing brought together Class I railroads, short lines, industry analysts, rail customers, rail suppliers, labor organizations and other interested parties to provide an understanding of how the industry has grown and intends to grow in the future to reverse the trend of declining carload volume. “Growth in the freight rail business is essential to short line railroads,” said ASLRRA Senior Vice President, Law, and General Counsel Sarah Yurasko. “Carload volume is the lifeblood of the short line industry. Short lines keenly focus on retaining and growing carload volume — and will partner with anyone to better serve a customer or build out a rail option for a new customer. Whether it is one carload of scrap a year that is hauled for a one-man scrap sorter, or several hundred carloads a week — there is no customer that our industry will not work to serve and grow business with. ASLRRA firmly believes that the way short lines do business is the reason short lines grow business so successfully. ASLRRA member railroads commonly highlight four components as critical to short line freight rail growth and success: 1 ) A deep understanding of their customers — their pain points, their growth strategies — and the Touchpoints for the American Economy Supply chain infrastructure company Savage is developing a new multi-commodity, rail-connected transload terminal called Savage Las Vegas, NV Transload in Jean, Nevada, that will be served by Union Pacific Railroad, the same railroad connecting to 11 miles of rail line in Tooele County, Utah, that Savage Tooele Railroad Company is building to connect to tenants of the Lakeview Business Park in Grantsville, Utah. Photo courtesy of Savage The following appears by permission of the American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association (ASLRRA, at www.aslrra.org). ( Continued on page 178 )SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION RAIL PARKS & INLAND PORTS 170 NOVEMBER 2024 SITE SELECTION his year, the North Carolina Railroad Company (NCRR) is celebrating its 175th anniversary. Chartered on Jan. 27, 1849, NCRR maintains a 317-mile rail corridor from Charlotte to Morehead City that serves as the state’s essential conduit. To keep our state moving at the speed of business, NCRR makes strategic investments and is introducing several new economic development programs in addition to its ‘legacy’ programs. NCRR Invests: Since its inception in 2016, the NCRR Invests program has been instrumental in securing new or expanded locations for multiple manufacturing facilities across North Carolina. Overall, NCRR committed more than $18 million of its private revenue, resulting in new or expanded locations for 21 manufacturing facilities and supporting the creation of more than 13,500 new jobs. As capital investment from these companies exceeds $8.3 billion, addressing freight rail infrastructure needs and prioritizing collaborative partnerships through NCRR Invests are critical components in advancing North Carolina’s economic prosperity. Build Ready Sites: Site availability is another key piece of keeping our state competitive. Frequently, companies do not have the time or budget to wait for municipalities to create infrastructure improvements. NCRR’s Build Ready Sites initiative provides essential funding and support to rail-served sites, transforming them into “build-ready” spaces primed for attracting new businesses. The program eliminates common roadblocks to advancement by ensuring the availability of sites that are ready for immediate development, signifi cantly reducing the time and resources required for new business setups. By addressing these foundational needs, NCRR empowers communities to proactively attract new businesses, create jobs, and bolster local economies. To date, NCRR committed more than $7.8 million to 16 sites in 14 counties across North Carolina. In 2024, NCRR enhanced its economic development program portfolio, including: The Brownfi elds Program: As a supplement to Build Ready Sites, this program will invest in environmentally challenged industrial sites to create more build-ready, rail-served sites that can attract new businesses to the state, create jobs, and increase freight rail usage. The Microgrants Program: Provides funding applicable towards due diligence studies, intended to eliminate barriers to entry for site development. These due diligence needs include Phase I and II Environmental Site Assessments, wetland and stream delineations, boundary and/or ALTA surveys, geotechnical reports, title opinions, and more. The Wetland Mitigation Program: Connects economic and industrial developers with wetland mitigation credits, encouraging regulatory compliance, streamlining the permitting process, and maximizing land use and cost savings for new projects. The program aims to preserve and restore North Carolina’s wetlands while balancing the needs of our state’s growing economy and future industrial development projects. NCRR Services: In additional to NCRR’s economic development programs, NCRR provides a suite of services designed to help current rail-served industries and those with truck-to-rail conversion potential do just that. Consulting Services: NCRR off ers options for commodity & logistic analysis, site selection, and marketing assistances to Economic Development Organizations (EDOs) and industries, to drive data-driven decision making and drive economic development. Engineering and Construction Services: Working closely with rail-served industries, the North Carolina Department of Transportation, and other rail construction organizations, NCRR leverages in-house expertise for engineering review, design of on-site rail construction, and rail track inspection to achieve the highest standards of safety and effi ciency Track Protection and Safety Services: After identifying the insuffi cient number of qualifi ed railroad fl agging services as an obstacle to expediting rail and roadway projects throughout the state, NCRR launched its Track Protection Program. The company now supplies fl aggers for safety and coordination during construction, repair, and maintenance projects on the NCRR corridor and Norfolk Southern- owned corridors. NCRR is dedicated to advancing the state’s rail network and promoting long-term economic sustainability in our state. The NCRR team is proud to off er these new services and economic development programs to ensure the continued success and vitality of local economies. The North Carolina Railroad Company is excited for its next 175 years as it continues to keep North Carolina forever in motion. North Carolina Railroad CompanySPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION RAIL PARKS & INLAND PORTS 172 NOVEMBER 2024 SITE SELECTION F ollowing the explosion of post-pandemic domestic industrial projects, industrial demand remains strong. NAIOP forecasts industrial absorption to increase by 17.8% in 2025. From manufacturing to fulfillment, companies across industry are changing to meet the moment. Global competition, evolving consumer needs, and just-in-time fulfillment are shaping change. At the center of the revolution is rail-served real estate. Faced with supply chain disruptions, rising operational costs, and reduced margins, industry innovators are employing a powerful tool to increase financial efficiency: bundling rail and real estate development. Rail has long held a transportational edge for its safety and cost efficiency per ton, but companies across industry are realizing the transformative financial impact on operational efficiency when rail and real estate development are combined. Rail efficiencies compound when sites are dual rail served, reducing captivity and increasing optionality. Given the exhaustive efforts companies invest to identify strategic locations, equal consideration should be given to logistics solutions that maximize operational efficiency. These decisions span the life of the project. A 2024 analysis from RSI Logistics found that direct rail solutions deliver a 51% savings compared to long-haul shipments. New Rules of the Game Traditionally, companies invest considerable time and resources to identify the optimal location for manufacturing and distribution centers; however, transportation solutions for these new hubs are developed at a later stage. That misplaced timing often boxes out the most efficient transportation solutions and inhibits optimized flow of the newly constructed site. Across the country, site selectors, developers, and companies are including railroads into early conversations that preserve transportation options and uncover a site’s full logistical efficiency. By baking optimized transportation plans into the site’s design phase, all options from footprint to floorplan are preserved. These conversations influence loading and unloading design, storage needs, and impact shipping and receiving options on planned inventory management solutions. The result is optimized flow and savings, enabling a much more efficient use of capital. Leading the Way OmniTRAX, the transportation affiliate of infrastructure developer The Broe Group, is demonstrating the impact of rail and real estate bundles to industry leaders and innovators across the country. As North America’s largest privately held infrastructure development company, OmniTRAX provides the reach, readiness, and resources that bring transformative rail and real estate solutions to life. Serving more than 400 customers, OmniTRAX is large enough to tackle complex supply chain challenges while maintaining its hyperlocal focus of building success stories one community at a time. The OmniTRAX reach includes 28 rail operations spanning coast-to- coast and from Canada to Mexico. In addition to connecting customers to the North American rail network, OmniTRAX provides access to industrial parks and ports in strategic markets across the country. Within this vast network, OmniTRAX offers immediate readiness for customers seeking rail and non-rail served sites that combine strategic location with logistics efficiency. Industry leaders such as The Home Depot, P&G, and Commercial Metals Company and innovators such as Gotham Greens and Quantix have taken notice. Many Fortune 500 companies are OmniTRAX rail customers, affiliated industrial park tenants, or both. OmniTRAX’s unique ability to provide integrated supply chain solutions is attracting site selectors across the country. “OmniTRAX moves at the speed of business,” said Strategic Development Group President Mark Williams. “When our customers are seeking complete logistics solutions, OmniTRAX consistently provides the invaluable counsel they need to make informed decisions.” Its unique pairing of rail expertise and a fully integrated real estate development affiliate company (Broe Real Estate) provides OmniTRAX customers a comprehensive view to optimize operational efficiency. Conventional developers just focus on “building the box” for customers. OmniTRAX helps clients avoid being boxed out of optimized shipping solutions, by injecting dual expertise into the design phase. Equally important to its reach and readiness is its resources. As a privately held company, OmniTRAX excels at bespoke solutions. When a customer seeks land or rail service beyond its portfolio, OmniTRAX acquires the assets needed to create the desired solution. “When The Home Depot identified the greater Denver area as the ideal location for its latest flatbed distribution center, I knew we could count on OmniTRAX to make it happen,” said Upstate Colorado Economic Development CEO Rich Werner. “OmniTRAX quickly acquired 300 acres and delivered an award- winning facility in record time. Their entrepreneurial approach to providing solutions is what makes OmniTRAX so different.” Market Outlook Supply chain efficiency is more important than ever, and bundling is proving its value with each new project. Bundling rail service and real estate development provides immediate operational efficiencies, positions projects to scale with company growth, and positions businesses for long- term success in an increasingly competitive global marketplace. Location and logistics are equally important pieces of the supply chain puzzle. Planning both pieces from the beginning of project design, is the key to solving it. OmniTRAX provides the collective rail and real estate expertise to help companies create customized solutions that drive their business forward. As domestic supply chains continue to evolve, the rail and real estate development bundle is proving to be the blueprint for optimized logistics solutions and operational efficiency. Game On: Rail + Real Estate Changing Supply Chain Strategies SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION RAIL PARKS & INLAND PORTS 176 NOVEMBER 2024 SITE SELECTION D ermody Properties — a diversified private equity investment man- agement company focused exclusively on the national logistics real estate sector — is developing LogistiCenter® at Pleasant Prairie. LogistiCenter® at Pleasant Prairie is strategically located in Southeast Wisconsin, broadly known as a suburb of the greater Chicago industrial mar- ket. The site, redeveloped from a decommissioned We Energies power plant, offers the ability to deliver heavy power to meet the increasing demand of advanced manufacturing. The three-building park is planned to accommo- date more than 2 million square feet of Class A industrial and logistics space and has substantial power capacity, fresh water access from Lake Michigan and the extremely rare opportunity to receive or transload due to the dual rail service from the Union Pacific Railroad and Canadian Pacific Kansas City Southern Railroad. Smurfit Westrock signs 583,000 SF build-to-suit for advanced manufacturing facility Believing in the value proposition, Smurfit Westrock, a global leader in sustainability packaging with 320 manufacturing facilities, design centers, research labs and sales offices worldwide, ended its multi-state search in January 2024, signing a build-to-suit lease at LogistiCenter® at Pleasant Prairie. The logistics park sits at the confluence of east/west and north/south railroads, connecting the park from East to West in the United States, and North to South from Mexico to Canada. This rail connection to the Union Pacific allows Smurfit Westrock to transport raw materials with increased efficiency and reduce environmental impact. Utilizing the rail to deliver raw materials cuts weekly inbound truck traffic by approximately 150 trips. The rail versus truck transportation model also significantly cuts transpor- tation cost by several million dollars per year and benefits the local commu- nity by reducing truck traffic and maintenance on roadway infrastructure. The asset-rich former power plant has been given new purpose for the Pleasant Prairie community and incoming businesses alike, contributing to the area’s well-established and respected manufacturing and technological business community. Situated between Milwaukee and Chicago, Pleasant Prairie has seen rapid economic development due to its business-friendly environment and access to a high-quality labor force. LogistiCenter® at Pleasant Prairie’s distinct combination of power- ful capabilities shows Dermody Properties’ continuous commitment to providing customers with value that will support growth in an evolv- ing economy. To learn more about LogistiCenter® at Pleasant Prairie, visit dermody.com. Dual-rail service and distinct power capabilities bring 2MSF of world-class logistics space to Southeast WisconsinNext >