OHIO
From Site Selection magazine, May 2009
Make Your
Own Stimulus
Own Stimulus
R
enewable energy, goods movement and, above all, innovation, are today's economic bywords for the Northwest Ohio region.
"Toledo and Northwest Ohio face the challenges of converting from a heavy reliance on the auto industry to one that emphasizes high technology and alternative energy," writes U.S. Sen. George Voinovich, now serving the last term of a long political career in the state, in an e-mail. Asked for a SWOT analysis of the region, he says, "Some of its weaknesses are a heavy reliance on the auto industry; high energy costs; and a low percentage of adults with higher education degrees. Some of its strengths are: a trained work force; strong academic institutions with developing expertise in many research areas; growing expertise and research in alternative energy manufacturing, including solar, wind and biomass; and a recognition of the area as a multimodal transportation hub with developments in Toledo at various rail areas, seaport and airports, such as CSX in North Baltimore (Wood County) and Norfolk Southern Triple Crown in Sandusky (Erie County)."
On the brink of receiving its EPA and Corps of Engineers permits in March, the US$85-million CSX Intermodal hub is one of the region's biggest projects, and officials hoped to be breaking ground in April.
It's also one of the railroad's biggest projects, because it will serve as the western anchor for its National Gateway plan, which includes upgrades in Charlotte, N.C.; new facilities in Chambersburg and Pittsburgh, Pa., and Baltimore, Md.; and a laundry list of track, bridge and tunnel upgrades that will open up the CSX system to double-stack trains.
"We've gotten good support," says CSX spokesman Garrick Francis. "Pennsylvania has committed funds, and Ohio just committed $20 million to the project."
CSX Intermodal, a separate business unit of CSX, provides intermodal transportation to the eastern U.S., and is unique among the Class I railroads in having facilities on both the East and West Coasts. So its planners needed a unique transshipment facility not unlike a major hub airport. In North Baltimore, some 30 trains a day will call, but only a handful will be trains that originate or terminate there. In addition to serving markets from coast to coast, the facility also will provide a major benefit by taking on some of the large volume of freight CSX now routes through the congested hub of Chicago.
The site selection began in 2006. Dan Murphy, director of business unit services for CSX, says the intermodal unit looked at a number of sites in Indiana and Ohio, and picked North Baltimore because of its immediate proximity to the CSX mainline, the ability to install several miles of lead track, proximity to major highway systems to serve customers and the fact that it had the fewest number of residential areas that would be affected by the facility.
"There are probably fewer than a dozen residences in the immediate area, and we intentionally bought some of them even on land we didn't immediately need, so we could be a good neighbor," says Murphy.
He explains that the permitting and road closure process has involved great cooperation among village, township and county officials.
"The county engineer has been responsible for a number of activities such as drainage, roadways, anything under his purview. He's been extremely supportive. The three county commissioners had to endorse the closing of roads that bisected the facility, and they did that. The Economic Development Commission of Wood County has provided us assistance in terms of expertise, and their knowledge of the business community."
The project is also receiving help from the Ohio Rail Development Commission in the form of up to $5 million to support grade separation at or near the facility, to eliminate bottlenecks and lessen community impact.
"We have the requisite interaction with the Army Corps of Engineers and the Ohio EPA, and we're nine-tenths of the way there," Murphy continues. "So we've cleared all the hurdles, and when we get our 404 and 401 permits, we'll be ready to go."
Long-Range Vectors
Like most intermodal yards going in across the country, including the recently completed Norfolk Southern facility near Columbus, there was some pushback from residents either in close proximity, or uncomfortable with the change in the community. But it was outweighed by local support.
"The initial understandable uncertainty about the change it would bring to the community was more than matched by a desire by the community to build infrastructure for new growth and new jobs for the future that the area had not seen for the past two or three decades," says Murphy. "Since 2006, when we began, two of the largest local manufacturers have closed, so most in the community view this as a real shot in the arm."
To better understand the impact and the economic potential of such a facility, one township leader took a field trip to the CSX intermodal facility in Fairburn, Ga. After seeing the operation and the development such a facility could engender, "he came back and became very supportive of the entire project," says Murphy.
The City of Findlay, just to the south in Hancock County, has become a distribution and manufacturing center in its own right.
"We have a number of people in the Findlay area who are extremely interested in the potential of this facility," says Murphy. "Everywhere an intermodal facility has been sited, it has created demand or interest by companies who seek an advantage by being near the facility&hellip We think that primarily the proof is in the experience we've had – this will create more development and more jobs."
Even with the permits still pending early this spring, CSX was making twice weekly trips to the village offices in North Baltimore to deliver construction job applications. Plans call for the facility to be completed by the end of 2010.
North Baltimore is not the only place along the state's northern reaches seeing transport projects. In Defiance County, to the west, even as the CSX facility moves forward, the Defiance County Community Improvement Corporation is investigating the potential for an inland intermodal facility.
At the Toledo Shipyard, the region's largest appropriation of federal stimulus dollars – $15 million – is going toward the expansion of its high-bay shop, which could result in as many as 100 new skilled-trade jobs at the shipyard. And the Port of Cleveland in February unveiled a major reconfiguration plan oriented toward luring transportation-dependent manufacturers, logistics and alternative energy businesses while simultaneously redeveloping the lakefront. The plan calls for the long-term relocation of the port, taking place over the next 25 years.
If anyone can testify to the state of industrial facility development in the Buckeye State, it's a manufacturers' rep in the building products industry.
"We're seeing purchasing activity by contractors and by building products distributors that belies the trends of what you see on the TV every night," says Frank Peterson, a manufacturers' representative with exterior building products firm SalesLynx, based in the Cleveland area. "People are buying, asking about pricing, asking for quotes."
Peterson says commission levels at his firm are equal to the same period in 2008, which in turn was equal to the prior year, though 2006 totals were 20 percent higher than those in 2007. He says the commercial and industrial sectors are strong right now.
Part of a small firm whose principals criss-cross a five-state territory to the tune of 60,000 miles (96,600 km.) a year, Peterson says another dynamic may be in play when it comes to employment figures.
"There are people asking about manufacturer's reps who can do a job for them," he says. "So the idea that people are not hiring may not be accurate. Companies are hiring. They may not be hiring employees, but they may be hiring consultants, or specialists."
On the economic development side, Steve Benko, a consultant working with Lake Erie Business Park in Port Clinton, says the park has seen a number of leads in solar and advanced materials, food and skilled metal fabrication.
"Ohio has a labor force that knows how to make things, and has the robust infrastructure a lot of these companies are looking for," he says. "We've seen an uptick in metal alloys and advanced materials. Ohio has the industry that can make those materials."
"Generally speaking, we're experiencing a lot of leads and queries, especially in the industrial sector," says Gary Thompson, executive director of the Oregon Economic Development Foundation, in a Toledo-area municipality. "There are four companies in the steel industry poking around. There is also a company that supports refineries talking to us about what they want to do within two and five years, with some different thinking in their industry that would be good for the planet and the refinery. It's all pretty exciting stuff."
Peterson says he does not discount the real suffering that people are going through in Ohio and elsewhere, nor the fact that some businesses have gone under. But he offers an Ohioan's perspective.
"We suffered back in the 1970s," he says. "People evacuated from here and went to the South. The people who stayed here, and who have been here for 30 years or 40 years since, they are able to make it. They figured out a niche, and are successful in this marketplace. We haven't had that stratospheric growth they've had down South, but the reason things aren't that bad here is that people here are accustomed to operating in an environment that is fairly conservative. When things are bad … well, they've already been bad here.
"It's kind of like the tortoise and the hare story," he says, casting his home state in the role of the shelled creature with staying power. "We're just chugging along in the State of Ohio."
Battery Firm is Regional Dynamo
Just down the shoreline from Toledo, in Port Clinton, the area's transport, automotive and innovation threads tie together in the form of Crown Battery. In January, the company announced its investment in a new manufacturing facility at Lake Erie Business Park that will feature off-grid electrical power generating capacity in the form of the "WindCube," a rooftop wind turbine unit manufactured by Akron-based Green Energy Technologies, and solar power.
Crown in 2007 moved approximately 50 jobs from Mexico to Fremont, Ohio, just inland from Sandusky, when it purchased the assets of C&D Technologies and invested $15 million in a facility expansion.
Crown makes industrial batteries and chargers for the material handling, mining and railroad industries, and also manufactures automotive-style and commercial battery products for markets including floor-care, marine, commercial truck and automotive aftermarket. It has grown from 288 to 445 employees over the past decade, at 11 locations in two countries, but has been based in Fremont ever since German immigrant William J. Koenig founded the company there in 1926, primarily to distribute car batteries and radiators. The new facility in Port Clinton will make batteries for renewable projects such as electric cars.
In an interview, Hal Hawk, CEO and president of Crown Battery, says, "The biggest thing is the push by the new administration for renewable energy. We saw the renewable energy initiative as another opportunity to grow our business. We were approached by Green Energy Technologies about this WindCube they were making. I liked the presentation enough to sign a letter of intent to purchase it, and we plan on using wind and solar to charge our batteries."
The WindCube unit costs approximately $70,000. Instead of sending power into a grid, it sends it directly into the building on which it sits. At Crown, the units may supply up to 20 percent of the facility's power needs. Helping pay for the unit is a 40-percent rebate from the Ohio Dept. of Development's energy efficiency division. In addition, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 allows owners of small wind systems to receive an uncapped investment tax credit for 30 percent of the total installed cost.
Hawk had been looking at solar and wind options for his company's complex in Fremont. Meanwhile, Jim McKinney and Dave Farbach, owners of Lake Erie Business Park and fellow Fremont natives and Rotarians, had installed a weather station with six anemometers at their park that recorded consistent wind speeds of 15.1 mph, "which proves much better than here in Sandusky County," says Hawk.
Hawk, a trustee for Sandusky County Economic Development, says his firm will be trying to promote the use of the WindCube among businesses in the area: "I'd anticipate significant opportunities for people based on the scalability of this unit," he says.
A number of "green" battery company expansions are in the works in the larger region, including Michigan, based on forthcoming federal funds to support them. Asked if his company may reap some of that cash, Hawk says, "We're not waiting for anybody to come and help us. We've applied for some assistance after the fact, but we're forging ahead whether or not we're fortunate enough to get any grants. We're not ones here at Crown Battery to wait for the government to save us."
Hawk thinks the state can do more to attract more manufacturing activity. In the meantime, Crown is readying to do more on its own, in concert with the state's educational institutions, in areas such as electric vehicle development.
"We keep our hands dabbling in a number of areas," he says.
This Roof Has a Story
This first iteration of the WindCube weighs 18 tons. That means it better have a mighty sturdy base. In this case, it has exactly that: The building on which it sits is part of the original Camp Perry Proving Ground established during World War I, later called Erie Ordnance Depot during World War II. At one time employing 5,000 people, the operation closed in 1967.
The structure in which Crown is locating already is home to operations from Silgan Plastics and stainless steel fabricator Northern Manufacturing. But it used to be used for making and loading ammunition, with the ability to run railcars all day long via the rail bay through the center of the structure.
"It's a very sturdy building," explains Steve Benko, whose consulting firm HONOS works with Lake Erie Business Park. "It has an 18-inch reinforced concrete roof, made to hold water in the event German bombers would use optics and would mistake the roof for a retention pond. It's completely over-engineered. It was called a 200-year construction when they built it. So it still has 140 years of life left in it."
The park has a few lifetimes left too. Among its other assets are two freshwater intakes whose capacity of 1.5 million gallons per day could reach 2 million gallons with new pumps. In addition to having natural gas, the park is five miles (8 km.) from the Davis-Besse nuclear power station operated by FirstEnergy.
Benko says the year's worth of data collected by the meteorological tower in 2008 was one thing that attracted the WindCube manufacturer to the site as a 21st century proving ground for its technology.
The roof now also boasts a 60-panel solar array, with the power currently going straight through the roof to Northern Manufacturing's operation. Benko says direct sale of rooftop alternative energy to users is "a great way to provide them with some risk mitigation."
Because of the roof's sturdiness, the future might hold another possibility: Where water might once have reflected sunlight toward Axis aviators, plans today call for a solar field covering the roof's entire 17 acres (nearly 7 hectares).
Benko says inquiries have been coming from food companies looking for locations at what he calls "the eastern edge of the Cornbelt," and from industrial recycling firms. The park is reaching out to large-scale water users and to intermodal logistics users, given its location just off the Norfolk Southern mainline.
"Ours would be a smaller scale version of the CSX project," he says, "but we'd submit it would be a lot more convenient. Again, with the military, the purpose of the building was as a cross-dock from rail to truck. We're just reconstituting that use."
"Toledo and Northwest Ohio face the challenges of converting from a heavy reliance on the auto industry to one that emphasizes high technology and alternative energy," writes U.S. Sen. George Voinovich, now serving the last term of a long political career in the state, in an e-mail. Asked for a SWOT analysis of the region, he says, "Some of its weaknesses are a heavy reliance on the auto industry; high energy costs; and a low percentage of adults with higher education degrees. Some of its strengths are: a trained work force; strong academic institutions with developing expertise in many research areas; growing expertise and research in alternative energy manufacturing, including solar, wind and biomass; and a recognition of the area as a multimodal transportation hub with developments in Toledo at various rail areas, seaport and airports, such as CSX in North Baltimore (Wood County) and Norfolk Southern Triple Crown in Sandusky (Erie County)."
A segment of the upper stage Ares I-X rocket assembled at the NASA Glenn Research Center near Sandusky is transported by a special crane to the cargo hold of the Delta Mariner. Twelve segments were shipped down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, in preparation for a test launch in 2009.
Photo courtesy of NASA Glenn Research Center
On the brink of receiving its EPA and Corps of Engineers permits in March, the US$85-million CSX Intermodal hub is one of the region's biggest projects, and officials hoped to be breaking ground in April.
It's also one of the railroad's biggest projects, because it will serve as the western anchor for its National Gateway plan, which includes upgrades in Charlotte, N.C.; new facilities in Chambersburg and Pittsburgh, Pa., and Baltimore, Md.; and a laundry list of track, bridge and tunnel upgrades that will open up the CSX system to double-stack trains.
"We've gotten good support," says CSX spokesman Garrick Francis. "Pennsylvania has committed funds, and Ohio just committed $20 million to the project."
CSX Intermodal, a separate business unit of CSX, provides intermodal transportation to the eastern U.S., and is unique among the Class I railroads in having facilities on both the East and West Coasts. So its planners needed a unique transshipment facility not unlike a major hub airport. In North Baltimore, some 30 trains a day will call, but only a handful will be trains that originate or terminate there. In addition to serving markets from coast to coast, the facility also will provide a major benefit by taking on some of the large volume of freight CSX now routes through the congested hub of Chicago.
The site selection began in 2006. Dan Murphy, director of business unit services for CSX, says the intermodal unit looked at a number of sites in Indiana and Ohio, and picked North Baltimore because of its immediate proximity to the CSX mainline, the ability to install several miles of lead track, proximity to major highway systems to serve customers and the fact that it had the fewest number of residential areas that would be affected by the facility.
"There are probably fewer than a dozen residences in the immediate area, and we intentionally bought some of them even on land we didn't immediately need, so we could be a good neighbor," says Murphy.
“Most in the community view this as a real shot in the arm.”
— Dan Murphy, director of business unit services, CSX, on the railroad's
$85-million intermodal hub coming to North Baltimore, Ohio.
$85-million intermodal hub coming to North Baltimore, Ohio.
He explains that the permitting and road closure process has involved great cooperation among village, township and county officials.
"The county engineer has been responsible for a number of activities such as drainage, roadways, anything under his purview. He's been extremely supportive. The three county commissioners had to endorse the closing of roads that bisected the facility, and they did that. The Economic Development Commission of Wood County has provided us assistance in terms of expertise, and their knowledge of the business community."
The project is also receiving help from the Ohio Rail Development Commission in the form of up to $5 million to support grade separation at or near the facility, to eliminate bottlenecks and lessen community impact.
"We have the requisite interaction with the Army Corps of Engineers and the Ohio EPA, and we're nine-tenths of the way there," Murphy continues. "So we've cleared all the hurdles, and when we get our 404 and 401 permits, we'll be ready to go."
Long-Range Vectors
"The initial understandable uncertainty about the change it would bring to the community was more than matched by a desire by the community to build infrastructure for new growth and new jobs for the future that the area had not seen for the past two or three decades," says Murphy. "Since 2006, when we began, two of the largest local manufacturers have closed, so most in the community view this as a real shot in the arm."
To better understand the impact and the economic potential of such a facility, one township leader took a field trip to the CSX intermodal facility in Fairburn, Ga. After seeing the operation and the development such a facility could engender, "he came back and became very supportive of the entire project," says Murphy.
The City of Findlay, just to the south in Hancock County, has become a distribution and manufacturing center in its own right.
"We have a number of people in the Findlay area who are extremely interested in the potential of this facility," says Murphy. "Everywhere an intermodal facility has been sited, it has created demand or interest by companies who seek an advantage by being near the facility&hellip We think that primarily the proof is in the experience we've had – this will create more development and more jobs."
Even with the permits still pending early this spring, CSX was making twice weekly trips to the village offices in North Baltimore to deliver construction job applications. Plans call for the facility to be completed by the end of 2010.
North Baltimore is not the only place along the state's northern reaches seeing transport projects. In Defiance County, to the west, even as the CSX facility moves forward, the Defiance County Community Improvement Corporation is investigating the potential for an inland intermodal facility.
At the Toledo Shipyard, the region's largest appropriation of federal stimulus dollars – $15 million – is going toward the expansion of its high-bay shop, which could result in as many as 100 new skilled-trade jobs at the shipyard. And the Port of Cleveland in February unveiled a major reconfiguration plan oriented toward luring transportation-dependent manufacturers, logistics and alternative energy businesses while simultaneously redeveloping the lakefront. The plan calls for the long-term relocation of the port, taking place over the next 25 years.
Reconciling the Numbers
Projects such as this $48-million expansion by Fenner Dunlop in Port Clinton belie the constant association of Ohio with a struggling industrial economy in the daily news.
T
o many there is a fundamental chasm between the high rankings Site Selection gives Ohio communities for their tallies of corporate facility projects and the ballooning unemployment the state is seeing over the past year. But the fact is that facility locations and expansions have been continuing, some creating new jobs, some not.
If anyone can testify to the state of industrial facility development in the Buckeye State, it's a manufacturers' rep in the building products industry.
"We're seeing purchasing activity by contractors and by building products distributors that belies the trends of what you see on the TV every night," says Frank Peterson, a manufacturers' representative with exterior building products firm SalesLynx, based in the Cleveland area. "People are buying, asking about pricing, asking for quotes."
Peterson says commission levels at his firm are equal to the same period in 2008, which in turn was equal to the prior year, though 2006 totals were 20 percent higher than those in 2007. He says the commercial and industrial sectors are strong right now.
Part of a small firm whose principals criss-cross a five-state territory to the tune of 60,000 miles (96,600 km.) a year, Peterson says another dynamic may be in play when it comes to employment figures.
"There are people asking about manufacturer's reps who can do a job for them," he says. "So the idea that people are not hiring may not be accurate. Companies are hiring. They may not be hiring employees, but they may be hiring consultants, or specialists."
On the economic development side, Steve Benko, a consultant working with Lake Erie Business Park in Port Clinton, says the park has seen a number of leads in solar and advanced materials, food and skilled metal fabrication.
"Ohio has a labor force that knows how to make things, and has the robust infrastructure a lot of these companies are looking for," he says. "We've seen an uptick in metal alloys and advanced materials. Ohio has the industry that can make those materials."
"Generally speaking, we're experiencing a lot of leads and queries, especially in the industrial sector," says Gary Thompson, executive director of the Oregon Economic Development Foundation, in a Toledo-area municipality. "There are four companies in the steel industry poking around. There is also a company that supports refineries talking to us about what they want to do within two and five years, with some different thinking in their industry that would be good for the planet and the refinery. It's all pretty exciting stuff."
Peterson says he does not discount the real suffering that people are going through in Ohio and elsewhere, nor the fact that some businesses have gone under. But he offers an Ohioan's perspective.
"We suffered back in the 1970s," he says. "People evacuated from here and went to the South. The people who stayed here, and who have been here for 30 years or 40 years since, they are able to make it. They figured out a niche, and are successful in this marketplace. We haven't had that stratospheric growth they've had down South, but the reason things aren't that bad here is that people here are accustomed to operating in an environment that is fairly conservative. When things are bad … well, they've already been bad here.
"It's kind of like the tortoise and the hare story," he says, casting his home state in the role of the shelled creature with staying power. "We're just chugging along in the State of Ohio."
– Adam Bruns
Battery Firm is Regional Dynamo
Crown in 2007 moved approximately 50 jobs from Mexico to Fremont, Ohio, just inland from Sandusky, when it purchased the assets of C&D Technologies and invested $15 million in a facility expansion.
Crown makes industrial batteries and chargers for the material handling, mining and railroad industries, and also manufactures automotive-style and commercial battery products for markets including floor-care, marine, commercial truck and automotive aftermarket. It has grown from 288 to 445 employees over the past decade, at 11 locations in two countries, but has been based in Fremont ever since German immigrant William J. Koenig founded the company there in 1926, primarily to distribute car batteries and radiators. The new facility in Port Clinton will make batteries for renewable projects such as electric cars.
In an interview, Hal Hawk, CEO and president of Crown Battery, says, "The biggest thing is the push by the new administration for renewable energy. We saw the renewable energy initiative as another opportunity to grow our business. We were approached by Green Energy Technologies about this WindCube they were making. I liked the presentation enough to sign a letter of intent to purchase it, and we plan on using wind and solar to charge our batteries."
The WindCube unit costs approximately $70,000. Instead of sending power into a grid, it sends it directly into the building on which it sits. At Crown, the units may supply up to 20 percent of the facility's power needs. Helping pay for the unit is a 40-percent rebate from the Ohio Dept. of Development's energy efficiency division. In addition, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 allows owners of small wind systems to receive an uncapped investment tax credit for 30 percent of the total installed cost.
Crown Battery President and CEO Hal Hawk (inset) thinks the WindCube could put a charge into business as well as into his company's products.
Hawk had been looking at solar and wind options for his company's complex in Fremont. Meanwhile, Jim McKinney and Dave Farbach, owners of Lake Erie Business Park and fellow Fremont natives and Rotarians, had installed a weather station with six anemometers at their park that recorded consistent wind speeds of 15.1 mph, "which proves much better than here in Sandusky County," says Hawk.
Hawk, a trustee for Sandusky County Economic Development, says his firm will be trying to promote the use of the WindCube among businesses in the area: "I'd anticipate significant opportunities for people based on the scalability of this unit," he says.
A number of "green" battery company expansions are in the works in the larger region, including Michigan, based on forthcoming federal funds to support them. Asked if his company may reap some of that cash, Hawk says, "We're not waiting for anybody to come and help us. We've applied for some assistance after the fact, but we're forging ahead whether or not we're fortunate enough to get any grants. We're not ones here at Crown Battery to wait for the government to save us."
Hawk thinks the state can do more to attract more manufacturing activity. In the meantime, Crown is readying to do more on its own, in concert with the state's educational institutions, in areas such as electric vehicle development.
"We keep our hands dabbling in a number of areas," he says.
This Roof Has a Story
The structure in which Crown is locating already is home to operations from Silgan Plastics and stainless steel fabricator Northern Manufacturing. But it used to be used for making and loading ammunition, with the ability to run railcars all day long via the rail bay through the center of the structure.
"It's a very sturdy building," explains Steve Benko, whose consulting firm HONOS works with Lake Erie Business Park. "It has an 18-inch reinforced concrete roof, made to hold water in the event German bombers would use optics and would mistake the roof for a retention pond. It's completely over-engineered. It was called a 200-year construction when they built it. So it still has 140 years of life left in it."
The park has a few lifetimes left too. Among its other assets are two freshwater intakes whose capacity of 1.5 million gallons per day could reach 2 million gallons with new pumps. In addition to having natural gas, the park is five miles (8 km.) from the Davis-Besse nuclear power station operated by FirstEnergy.
Benko says the year's worth of data collected by the meteorological tower in 2008 was one thing that attracted the WindCube manufacturer to the site as a 21st century proving ground for its technology.
The roof now also boasts a 60-panel solar array, with the power currently going straight through the roof to Northern Manufacturing's operation. Benko says direct sale of rooftop alternative energy to users is "a great way to provide them with some risk mitigation."
Because of the roof's sturdiness, the future might hold another possibility: Where water might once have reflected sunlight toward Axis aviators, plans today call for a solar field covering the roof's entire 17 acres (nearly 7 hectares).
Benko says inquiries have been coming from food companies looking for locations at what he calls "the eastern edge of the Cornbelt," and from industrial recycling firms. The park is reaching out to large-scale water users and to intermodal logistics users, given its location just off the Norfolk Southern mainline.
"Ours would be a smaller scale version of the CSX project," he says, "but we'd submit it would be a lot more convenient. Again, with the military, the purpose of the building was as a cross-dock from rail to truck. We're just reconstituting that use."
Site Selection Online – The magazine of Corporate Real Estate Strategy and Area Economic Development.
©2009 Conway Data, Inc. All rights reserved. SiteNet data is from many sources and not warranted to be accurate or current.
©2009 Conway Data, Inc. All rights reserved. SiteNet data is from many sources and not warranted to be accurate or current.