Laurie Wink, The News-Dispatch
LA PORTE - Will County, Ill., a collar county south of Chicago, considers itself a global transportation center "at the crossroad of trade."
Don Babcock, a La Porte County Multimodal Task Force member, shared Will County statistics during the tour of the CenterPoint Intermodal Center at Elwood, Ill.
The numbers came from the Will County Center for Economic Development.
Since CenterPoint Properties opened the Elwood intermodal park in 2002, Will County's industrial inventory has doubled, leading the Chicago metro area. Because of its success, CenterPoint is in the process of constructing another logistics center in Crete, just east of Elwood.
With a focus on national transportation development, Will County officials say they are poised to take advantage of projected increases in global freight shipments.
John Regetz, head of the Michigan City Economic Development Corp., said La Porte County could also cash in on global transportation. He said he doesn't see an intermodal in Crete as a barrier to a development here because Crete won't be able to handle all of the expected increases in shipping.
The world output of goods is projected to increase by a third during the next 10 years, he said. And the amount of freight transferred around the world could triple by 2024.
As the ports around Los Angeles have become overburdened, ports around New York and in the south are growing to pick up the slack.
According to Regetz, shippers will try to avoid going into Chicago because of the expense. He said a container shipped into Chicago costs $225 as opposed to a $40 cost of shipping to the CIC - a savings of about $180 per container.
He added La Porte County is well positioned for an intermodal because it is within a day's drive of most Midwestern cities.
Shannon Mullen, marketing director for CenterPoint Properties in Oak Brook, Ill., said logistics parks are efficient because they bring rail and truck transportation together with warehouse and distribution.
A total of about $1 billion was invested on the 2,000-acre CIC development in Elwood. About $200 million was spent on new infrastructure, including $125 million for road components. Another $35 million in grants have been used to construct new water and sewer systems and to clean up contaminated water in the area.
Current residents of the CIC at Elwood are BNSF Railroad, Wal-Mart Stores Inc., DSC Logistics, Georgia-Pacific, Potlatch, Sanyo Logistics, Partners Warehouse, California Cartage and Maersk. Several new building were being constructed on speculation, waiting for future users.
"We're ever growing," Mullen said.
Babcock, who had been on a CIC tour last summer, said there were obvious signs of growth since then.
The La Porte County group toured two Wal-Mart bulk storage facilities with a total of about 3.4 million square feet. Stefan Hargrove of Wal-Mart said Wal-Mart is in the process of adding two more facilities at the site.
As facility manager, Hargrove is responsible for inventory control, with an average of 200 to 300 train containers unloaded each day. On the other side of the distribution center, trucks are hand-loaded with goods headed for regional warehouses throughout the Midwest, and then to stores.
"We pack them high and tight," Hargrove said. "We don't want to ship air."
Hargrove said a total of about 650 people were employed there and jobs start at $14.50 an hour. Just under 2,000 jobs have been created at the CIC.
When operating at full capacity, the CIC will have up to 12 million square feet of industrial and distribution facilities and should create about 8,000 new jobs. The center is expected to eventually increase property tax revenue in Will County by $27 million per year.
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