brought from the Port of Los Angeles or Long
Beach to its distribution center in Reno and
shipped from there, rather than locating a facility
near the ports.
While Reno’s position on the logistics map may
be what attracts companies, it’s the ease of doing
business that keeps them there, sometimes
expanding to include manufacturing or even their
corporate headquarters, according to Thomas. He
notes the speed in which companies can obtain
state and city licenses (within one day) and building permits (within three to four weeks). The DC
itself can get built in six months, he says.
QUINCY, WASH.
If you’re looking for a green spot for your warehouse or distribution center, you might want to
consider Quincy, Wash.
Quincy offers access to hydropower from dams
along the Columbia and Snake rivers. The energy
source is both environmentally friendly—
hydropower is carbon neutral—and inexpensive.
“Grant County [where Quincy is located] has
some of the cheapest hydropower rates in the
country,” says Patrick Boss, vice president of public affairs and business development for the Port
of Quincy.
According to an analysis by the site selection
firm Boyd Co. Inc., electricity in Quincy is priced at 2 cents
per kilowatt, compared with 15 cents per kilowatt in
Chicago. Because of the hydropower dams, there is also
significant electrical infrastructure in Grant County. “For a
little town of 7,000 people, that means there’s more power
per capita than probably any other place in the world,”
Boss says.
The low cost and plentiful
supply of energy is an attractive feature for companies
requiring refrigerated storage
facilities, such as those associated with the state’s ubiquitous agriculture industry.
According to Boss, many
crops that need refrigeration
are located within a 70- to
80-mile radius of Quincy. “If
a massive 1 million-square-foot cold storage distribution
center wanted to locate here
and it needed 10 megawatts of energy, that would be nothing,” Boss says.
Another sign of Quincy’s potential for green distribution
is its growing importance as a rail intermodal hub for cen-
tral Washington. Quincy is 10 miles north of Interstate 90,
which runs from Seattle to Boston. It is also located on a
BNSF main line that serves the city six days a week. When
the Port of Quincy Intermodal Terminal was built, the
intent was for the goods to be shipped by rail to the Port of
Seattle for export to Asia. While the initiative never panned
out, the port did find a market for long-haul eastbound
shipments. Today, BNSF’s
“Cold Train Express
Refrigerated Intermodal
Service” brings shipments of
mostly fresh foods and per-
ishables from Quincy to 19
states and one Canadian
province. The expedited serv-
ice reaches Chicago in four
days and Boston in six to
seven, says Boss. On the
backhaul, the service carries
dry goods to be distributed
across the Northwest.
All of this green can save a
company a lot of green, according to consultancy Boyd Co.,
which studied the costs of operating a 500,000-square-foot
DC in various western locations. The study found it would
cost $14.1 million to operate the facility in Quincy, compared with $20.7 million in Los Angeles. ;
52 DC VELOCITY DECEMBER 2013 www.dcvelocity.com
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For more information …
Want to learn more about the logistics clusters mentioned in
this article? Here’s where to find more information:
Dallas
▪ Dallas Regional Chamber: This economic development organization’s website provides facts about the Dallas-Fort Worth
area and locating there, including information on the region’s
transportation infrastructure. www.dallaschamber.org/
▪ AllianceTexas: Information about the Alliance Global
Logistics Hub, a key inland port in the region, includes a
drayage calculator. www.allianceairport.com/
Reno, Nev.
▪ EDAWN or the Economic Development Authority of
Western Nevada: This private/public partnership is committed to recruiting companies to the Greater Reno-Sparks-Tahoe area. Its website contains helpful information about
the region’s workforce and taxes/incentives as well as a
building and sites database and case studies of companies
that have found success there. www.edawn.org
Quincy, Wash.
▪ Port of Quincy: The inland port’s website contains information
on locating a business in Quincy, Wash.; the intermodal terminal; and the port’s cold train service. www.portofquincy.org
FOCAL POINT: THE INTERMODAL TERMINAL AT WASHINGTON’S PORT OF
QUINCY PROVIDES FAST ACCESS TO EASTERN MARKETS, A PLUS FOR
PRODUCTS REQUIRING REFRIGERATION.
