Aug 24, sovaldi 2012, 6:00am EDT
Oscar Pedro Musibay
Lykes Bros. and A. Duda & Sons plan to use about 1,600 acres to develop about 8.5 million square feet of logistics, distribution and mixed-use facilities in the first phase of their integrated logistics center in Moore Haven.
One purpose of the integrated logistics center (ILC) would be to serve as a staging area for backfilling empty containers making their way by truck or rail to ports from Orlando south, said Mark Morton, president of what is being called Americas Gateway Logistics Center.
Moore Haven, county seat for Glades County, has a population of about 1,700 on the west side of Lake Okeechobee.
Although the primary focus would be to facilitate exports, imports would be accommodated for assembling a product, with parts from places such as Brazil, prior to export. Additionally, offshore manufacturers might look to store and stage products on site as distribution into the United States is completed over several months, Morton said.
Primary markets would consist of North America, Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and western Europe. South Florida is also well positioned to target South Africa, which is a booming market for both imports and exports. The ILC’s first phase, which would take roughly a decade to develop, would be built with the help of an equity partner/developer, which could be announced within the next 60 days, he said.
Morton said potential partners withinternational experience have been approached. The first job was to convince them that Florida’s infrastructure and political will was capable of supporting such a facility, because other states are courting the same companies. The property is ideally located between Florida’s major ports and is already connected to major highways and rail, he said.
The site has frontage on U.S. 27, which runs south to I-75, and straddles U.S. Sugar’s South Central Florida Express railway, which offers connections to the CSX and Florida East Coast railways.
The first phase of the project would require at least a decade-long commitment, he said, so the companies were vetting the opportunity carefully.
“Two are getting real close,” Morton said. “If they pick Florida, they have chosen our site.”
The overall ILC is planned on 4,700 acres that could accommodate about 40 million square feet over roughly 30 years.
Cushman & Wakefield has been marketing the ILC to prospective tenants since the start of the year. The team includes Larry Richey, senior managing director; executive directors Sky Groden, Chris Metzger and Rick Etner; and Christopher Thomson, Director.
C&W joined the project’s existing team that includes Institute St. Onge, a leading supply chain investment advisory, consulting and engineering company; Ware Malcomb, one of the world’s largest industrial master planning and architectural firms; and Rockefeller Group Foreign Trade Zone Services.
C&W has also been seeking to land manufacturers/assembling companies for 2,000 additional acres that would be part of the overall project, if demand is there.
Groden said part of interest on the part of prospective tenants is land prices near South Florida ports are climbing because of the lack of developable land and demand for space driven by factors such as the expansion of the Panama Canal, which is supposed to be done by 2015.
As for users of the facility, he expects tenants to include shippers of both consumable and non-consumable perishable goods, as well as electronics and textiles.
“Florida is a maturing market that is seeing more demand because of the growth of the population in South America,” Groden said.