While Third Frontier makes Ohio more attractive to technology companies, the Buckeye State's central location in the U.S. makes it a natural choice for logistics end-users. Being within a day's drive of two-thirds of the U.S. population makes Ohio one of the busiest trucking and shipping corridors in the nation.
      Ohio offers nine ports on Lake Erie, 16 terminals on the Ohio River, 33,000 trucking companies and 36 railroads. Ohio boasts the nation's fourth largest Interstate highway system, three air cargo hubs and more than 180 public airports.
      FedEx Freight is one of those logistics companies betting big on Ohio. The company recently increased the size of its FedEx Freight Center on South Bailey Road in North Jackson in the Youngstown-Warren area. FedEx expanded the center from 102 to 154 doors and from 52,000 sq. ft. (4,831 sq. m.) to 75,000 sq. ft. (6,968 sq. m.), making it one of the largest operations in the company. The facility is near the intersection of I-76 and I-80.
      "FedEx Freight's expansion reinforces the fact that metropolitan Youngstown is strategically positioned to most effectively serve leading logistics companies," said Walt Good, director of the Youngstown-Warren Regional Chamber's economic development action team. "Firms operating in today's just-in-time environment locate here to quickly and efficiently penetrate large markets, such as New York and Chicago, overnight. In fact, major retailers such as Kaufmann's, Kmart, Things Remembered and Toys R Us have all located distribution centers here."
      Keith Van Guilder, spokesman for FedEx in Memphis, called the Youngstown-Warren market "a very important hub of industry."
      In the Cleveland area, RIS Paper agreed to occupy a mid-sized industrial facility in the Solon/Glenwillow submarket. RIS took about 72,000 sq. ft. (6,689 sq. m.) in Duke Realty's Emerald Valley Business Park.
      The new distribution/warehouse facility, completed last fall, offers 28-ft. (8.5-m.) ceilings, 25 dock doors, three drive-in doors and parking for 182 vehicles. RIS also benefits from being located in an Enterprise Zone and a Foreign Trade Zone.
      Demand for industrial space is high in Cleveland. Duke's 3.5 million-sq.-ft. (325,150-sq.-m.) portfolio in the market is about 99 percent occupied, according to Spencer Pisczak, senior vice president of Duke's Cleveland Industrial Group.