PepsiCo's Frito-Lay division opened one of only 50 LEED Gold Certified facilities in North America on June 22 in Rochester, N.Y. Frito-Lay says the $9-million distribution center is its first exclusively "green" building, and will serve as a model for the entire company. It is named in honor of former Frito-Lay Senior Vice President of Operations Jim Rich, who had been with the company for 28 years and laid the groundwork for many of Frito-Lay's energy conservation programs.
   "While this facility is a fully operational front line business unit, it also serves as an operational learning platform that will allow us to further develop our conservation strategies and create sustainable innovative technologies," said Rich Beck, senior vice president, operations, Frito-Lay North America.

Frito-Lay's new distribution center in Rochester, N.Y., its first exclusively "green" building, is one of only 50 LEED Gold Certified facilities in North America.

   The company said features of the new 41,000-sq.-ft. (3,809-sq.-m.) facility, which employs 80, include "responsible site selection and development, environmentally responsible construction management and materials, renewable energy sources, a reduction of the facility's 'heat island' effect, water efficiency, atmosphere and air quality measures, alternate transportation for employees and facility recycling programs." The new facility was developed with support from William McDonough and Partners, the project lead and designer, the Haskell Company, which served as the lead builder, and Stantec Architecture.
   Perhaps the Virginia-based McDonough now will see some of his environmental ideas implemented at another PepsiCo project in his home state. On June 23, the Gatorade division announced a new $140-million, 250-job plant in Wytheville, near the crossroads of I-81 and I-79.
   "The Wytheville area is a wonderful community and an important transportation hub to the Mid-Atlantic and Ohio Valley," said Chuck Maniscalco, president of Gatorade. "We weighed many economic, community and resource factors in our final decision, and we are happy to call the Commonwealth home to our eighth manufacturing and distribution facility." The company and community will see some $2.8 million in incentives, in addition to rail and road funding, for the anchor project at the new Wythe County Progress Park. The Gatorade project was the subject of an intense incentives battle between Virginia, North Carolina and Maryland, all states with formidable Mid-Atlantic logistics profiles.
   Maniscalco was also on hand in Oakland, Calif., a month earlier to celebrate a $20-million reinvestment in a 150-worker Gatorade plant. The project is just a reflection of the reinvestment the entire Oakland community is seeing, by virtue of both its booming port business and its 10 redevelopment zones.
   Kyle Ballard, economic development manager for Plano, Texas-based Frito-Lay, is an IAMC member, as is his colleague Russell Burton, corporate manager for economic development at PepsiCo Global Real Estate. Rick Richardson, with the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, is also an IAMC member.

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   In July, IAMC member company Norfolk Southern Corp. reported that the tax legislation signed into law on June 30 by Ohio Gov. Bob Taft (and discussed in this magazine's May 2005 issue) would have an immediate and substantial positive effect, increasing the company's second-quarter reported net income by approximately $95 million, or $0.23 per diluted share.
   The Ohio legislation phases out the Ohio Corporate Franchise Tax and phases in a new gross receipts tax called the Commercial Activity Tax. The Corporate Franchise Tax was generally based on federal taxable income, but the Commercial Activity Tax is based on current year sales and rentals in Ohio.
   The map above pictures Norfolk Southern's Ohio rail network. Its distribution facility network along that network includes four intermodal centers, four major transportation facilities, three automotive distribution facilities, nine steel centers, three bulk transfer terminals, and two lumber transload facilities. In addition, the rail company works with 24 shortline partners in the state. Other indicators of the company's Ohio stake: 4,107 employees paid $192.1 million annually, and 2,223 route miles (3,577 km.), or more than 10 percent of its total 22-state trackage.
   Among the 101 industrial locations and expansions the railroad assisted in 2004 was the new production facility for Sun Coke in Haverhill, Ohio. And in late July, the company announced it would serve the new Rickenbacker intermodal facility near Columbus. Van Baker, assistant vice president of real estate for Norfolk Southern, is an IAMC member.