Posts filed under 'CSX - Winter Haven'
Posted: February 4, 2008: 10:28 am
Meeting Friday, February 1, the Board of Directors for the East Polk Committee of 100 unanimously approved the following resolution:
The East Polk County Committee of 100 is an advocate of high quality economic development in East Polk County, Florida. Our Board of Directors of the EPC 100 endorses the proposed CSX Integrated Logistics Center (ILC) as a high quality economic development project. We encourage our legislative delegation and other concerned governmental bodies to complete the necessary infrastructure improvement required to make this proposed ILC as well as any and all future phases of this project, a model of high quality economic development to benefit all of Central Florida.
The EPC 100 joins the Central Florida Development Council, Greater Winter Haven Chamber of Commerce and Main Street Winter Haven who have also passed resolutions of support. The proposed 318 acres facility will serve to distribute containerized consumer goods and automobiles. The project is currently undergoing a “Development of Regional Impact” (DRI) review.
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Posted: November 21, 2007: 10:50 am
It is important to note that Alliance, Texas includes both a rail and air hub and the volume of consumer goods and automobiles it handles is three times that projected for the CSX intermodal center planned for Winter Haven. With that in mind the Alliance global hub generates impressive economic numbers … and if Winter Haven and Polk County see just one-third of the Alliance experience … solid, high quality economic growth is in store.
Offices of Hillwood, a Perot Company
Hillwood, the Perot Company development arm responsible for master planning the Alliance, Texas global logistics hub, presents a number of economic indicators as of December 31, 2006. Hillwood estimates that Alliance has had a $31.3 billion impact from 1990 through 2006 and a $2.77 billion impact for 2006 alone. Private investment accounts for 94.71% of the development - more than $6.2 billion.
Direct jobs created - more than 27,700
Indirect jobs created - more than 66,800
Number of Companies - more than 150
Number of Fortune 500, Global 500 and Forbes Top Private Companies - more than 65
You can review the complete Alliance economic impact statement here.
The rail intermodal portion accounts for approximately 300 employees. The true job growth occurs in the industries that locate facilities in the business park. The list of those companies features some of the world’s most successful including: AT&T; Bridgestone/Firestone; Coca-Cola; Con-way Freight; Hyundai; JC Penny; Kraft Foods; Mitsubishi Motor Sales of America; Motorola; Nestle; SC Johnson & Son and the list goes on. You’ll find a complete listing of Alliance corporate and retail businesses here.
Alliance, Texas is a model of how an intermodal facility and related business park can attract high quality corporate businesses and succeed in concert with retail and residential interests. Proper planning, building, landscaping and lighting controls as well as innovative thinking have created a powerful synergy just north of Ft. Worth. I have every reason to believe Winter Haven and East Polk can have the same experience.
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Posted: November 20, 2007: 4:52 pm
I was fortunate to travel to Alliance, Texas last week with City of Winter Haven representatives for an onsite visit to an intermodal rail facility and the offices of Hillwood (a Perot Company) responsible for master planning the surrounding business park. The land in use for the intermodal rail facility was 196 acres with room to expand. We were toured through the BNSF Railway facility by Glenn Smith, Senior Manager of Hub Operations and a 31 year BNSF employee. Smith opened the intermodal facility in 1994 and has directed the operations there since that time. We were given a thorough tour of the rail facility as well as the automotive terminal. Our hotel was approximately a half mile from the terminal adjacent to Interstate 35.
This entrance sign to the Alliance Center was just east of I-35. The building with tower in the background is a new retail center that includes restaurants and retail shops. This is approximately one half mile from the rail facility.
Observations and impressions.
The Alliance intermodal rail facility is very similar in size to the CSX facility now being planned in south Winter Haven. The Alliance center will complete approximately 600,000 lifts (loading a truck trailer-sized load on or off a rail car) in calendar 2007. That is three times the volume projected for the CSX site. The facilities were extraordinarily clean and orderly. Noise levels were low and at one point in the tour we were in a van immediately adjacent to the translift pictured below. With the driver’s window down we could easily carry on a conversation and the translift was operating.
Translift
The truck trips in and out of the center number 2000 on an average day to service the lifts described above. As the CSX facility projects 1/3 that volume, assuming similar hours of operation that would equate to about 670 truck trips per day here (335 in and 335 out). CSX has estimated slightly higher numbers.
Approximately a half mile across an open field from the intermodal rail center a new housing development is well underway. Average home prices according to Smith are from $200,000 to $1 million. A small community named Haslet is immediately adjacent to the rail terminal. Smith shared that since the terminal’s opening there had been no major issues with the residents of Haslet.
The automobile portion of the intermodal rail terminal has strictly controlled access. The rail cars have three levels of cars and workers attach ramps between the rail cars and automobiles are literally driven through the train to the exit ramp.
The surrounding business park has strict development standards that govern building color, landscaping and lighting. Those regulations are a part of the master plan controlled by Hillwood. City representatives were particularly interested in the quality of the development and the standards required to ensure the same type of quality here in the Winter Haven center. Our group also toured the business park at night observing the downlighting required by the building covenants. It was a clear evening and we could easily see the stars in the night sky.
The total acreage for Alliance is far greater than the project proposed here. Alliance occupies 17,000 acres north of Ft. Worth. The master plan for the project includes both business and residential uses. There is also a large “reliever airport” adjacent to the rail facility that was designed to relieve air traffic at the Dallas/Ft. Worth Airport.
City officials traveling to the site included Assistant City Manager Dale Smith, Community Development Director David Dickey, Planner Jean Sobierajski, and Communications and Marketing Division Director, Donna Sheehan.
Tomorrow we’ll take a look at jobs created - both direct and indirect - and economic impact.
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Posted: October 18, 2007: 3:00 pm
Projected traffic impacts for the CSX Intermodal DRI have been submitted. The methodology outlines both employee trips and truck traffic. The twelve-page document is available here. Map segments are presented below.
Projections indicate that all traffic for the intermodal terminal will enter and exit via State Road 60 to the south of the 318-acre site. The results indicate an average weekday trip generation of 513 vehicles in and 513 vehicles out or a total of 1,026 trips of which 80% would be from trucking operations (approximately 400 in and 400 out or 800 per day.
Fifty-six percent of truck traffic will travel to and from the terminal from the east on 60 with 53% using US 27 (i.e. 212 inbound and 212 outbound in a 24 hour period). One percent or approximately 10 8 trucks would travel through Lake Wales on 60.
Forty-four percent of the truck traffic will travel to and from the facility from the west on State road 60 to Bartow where 23% will use US 98 with 17% then traveling the Polk Parkway. Six percent or about 50 trucks would travel through Lakeland. (Ed. Note: This preceding two paragraphs were clarified to indicate that the percentages represent trips to a from the intermodal center.)
The methodology was prepared by HDR and the analysis is consistent with requirements and procedures of the Central Florida Regional Planning Council. Estimates were developed in part from existing intermodal traffic from the Taft facility near Orlando and the automobile arrival and distribution from both Taft and Tampa facilities.
The following map segments are from a map contained within the report available above.
Above: Eastern Polk Traffic Impacts (Black = Employee)(Red = Trucking)
Below: Western Polk Traffic Impacts (Black = Employee)(Red = Trucking)
The methodology is a part of the Development of Regional Impact (DRI) process.
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Posted: October 16, 2007: 3:12 pm
The Central Florida Regional Planning Council has begun pre-application meetings and procedures for the CSX Development of Regional Impact (DRI) study to be completed on the 318 acre intermodal terminal site. The formal application is expected to be submitted by CSX to the planning council in early December. CFRPC plans to present related documents for public review on their website www.cfrpc.org and comments regarding the DRI can be directed to csxdri@cfrpc.org.
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Posted: October 10, 2007: 1:53 pm
The Board of Directors for Main Street Winter Haven, meeting today (October 10) at their regular monthly meeting unanimously approved a resolution of support for the CSX intermodal facility and its positive economic development potential for downtown Winter Haven.
The CSX project will begin undergoing a Development of Regional Impact (DRI) review in mid-October. The intermodal facility would facilitate the shipment of containerized consumer products and automobiles.
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Posted: September 28, 2007: 8:52 am
CSX Corporation announced today (September 28, 2007) that the purchase of 318 acres from the City of Winter Haven for a state-of-the-art, rail intermodal and automotive terminal has been completed.
The land was purchased by Evansville Western Railway, Inc., a CSX affiliate company.
The land purchase and construction of the terminal are essential steps in the relocation of rail freight traffic to accommodate commuter rail operations in a four-county area from Deland to Poinciana. Commuter rail is the basis for a pending agreement with the Florida Department of Transportation.
A Development of Regional Impact (DRI) review will be conducted to evaluate the effects of the terminal on the region. The company will work with the state and Polk County to address any concerns identified by the process.
Winter Haven City Manager, David Greene, confirmed that documents have been signed and the $6,998,200 purchase has been completed. Asked about the sale Greene noted, “It’s really exciting. It’s the most significant economic development opportunity to date and it’s going to happen in Winter Haven.”
The DRI process will begin in mid-October.
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Posted: September 20, 2007: 8:59 am
Today’s Bradenton Herald has a front page Business section story regarding the proposed CSX intermodal terminal. It says in part …
Port Manatee officials are excited about a proposed CSX railroad terminal in Winter Haven that would improve the flow of container shipments throughout the state and to other parts of the country.
“It’s one more important tool that we have to market the port,” said Steve Tyndal, Port Manatee’s senior director of trade development and special projects. “If a shipper in Asia knows that a sophisticated intermodal facility like the one proposed for Winter Haven is only an hour away, that means we could more easily sell Port Manatee as a port of entry.”
The projected $100 million facility would off-load containers from trains for placement on trucks headed to distribution centers, said Richard Hood, assistant vice president of CSX Real Property. It will be located on 1,250 acres with two miles of rail frontage, according to Hood, who said it is the first development of its kind east of the Mississippi.
Read the complete story here.
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Posted: September 18, 2007: 8:19 am
The keynote speaker for the 2007 Central Florida Development Council was Lynda Keever, Florida Trend publisher. Keever spoke to the many changes coming about in Florida business and among her comments noted, “the CSX rail facility could be a tremendous opportunity for this area” adding, “it could be the glue that links the region together.” She went on to encourage collaboration both within the county and with our neighbors to the east and west (metro Orlando and Tampa). She noted that addressing the future from a regional perspective is not easy (as most planning has traditionally been done on a local or county basis) but she emphasized that it was her belief that successfully pursuing the future through “regionalism” will be the key to real progress.
The intermodal terminal is planned for 318 acres of land previously used as spray fields for the city’s Wastewater Treatment Plant 2. Another 900 acres surrounding the terminal is slated to be developed as a business/industrial park.
The publisher of the state’s premier business publication also cited Publix Supermarkets for their environmental initiatives in going green. Other important Polk successes mentioned included the Lakeside Village shopping and restaurant center in Lakeland and Haines City’s developing medical business park.
Lynda Keever, Publisher
Florida Trend
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Posted: September 12, 2007: 1:58 pm
In January 2006 the City of Winter Haven received a comprehensive report titled “Development of an Integrated Logistics Center in Winter Haven, Florida” which was distributed to elected officials, the media and the Chamber. This report was developed by HDR/HLB Decision Economics, Inc. of Silver Spring, Maryland.
The document has been published to the City of Winter Haven Web site since early 2006 and contains a thorough overview of employment projections, state and local tax revenue models and other valuable information about the impact that an Integrated Logistics Center (ILC) would have on our area.
With recent media reports that new development doesn’t pay its way, that employment figures for the ILC were somehow inflated to mislead, that tax projections are too grandiose . .. you will find this report comes to very different conclusions and it has been available for 18 months. The report is 30 pages long including charts and graphs and it is economic development information worth your time to read.
You can download a copy of this report here.
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