Tag Archive for: container cargo

port everglades_canstockphoto85312570 770x320

Business opportunities at Port Everglades are expanding with the construction of two warehouses that will offer distribution and logistical services.

Seagis Property Group just reported that it’s 75% complete with its 199,624-square-foot speculative development at 1700 Eller Drive in Hollywood. It expects construction to be complete in September. The building sits just outside Port Everglades’ security entrance allowing for prompt entry to the seaport’s cargo terminals, Port Everglades International Logistics Center (PEILC) and Florida East Coast Railway‘s near-dock facility.

The other new build is by Bridge Industrial, which anticipates completing its 170,892-square-foot logistics facility in the second quarter of 2024. The building is less than a mile from Port Everglades at 2200 NE 7th Ave. in Dania Beach. It’s the former site of Park ‘N Fly.

“The creation of warehouses immediately adjacent to Port Everglades is an indication of our seaport’s strength and standing in the marketplace,” said CEO and Port Director Jonathan Daniels. “The private sector understands the advantages of partnering with our Port. In addition to being conveniently located near major modes of transportation, we are responsible for more than $28.6 billion worth of trade in 2022. That is attractive to businesses.”

These new privately owned warehouses will complement the PEILC, a public-private partnership with CenterPoint Properties that was built in 2020 on 16.657 acres of Port-owned property. The entire PEILC is activated as Foreign Trade-Zone No. 25 allowing for the efficient distribution of goods at lower duty and tariff costs.

By The Numbers

According to Bridge Industrial, the new Bridge Point Port Everglades warehouse will have:

  • 32-foot clear ceiling height
  • 34 dock-high doors
  • 2 drive-in doors
  • A 120-foot truck court
  • 156 car parking spaces
  • Seagis Property Group reported that its warehouse will have:
  • 36-foot clear ceiling height
  • 32 dock doors
  • 2 oversized drive-in ramps
  • 172 automobile parking spaces
  • 49 trailer parking spaces

 

Source: AJOT

American dollars grow from the ground

The growing logistics industry has not only created insatiable demand for warehouse space, it has ramped up growth in the transportation industry,Ā creating a need for modern truck terminals with high-volume flow-through facilities.

Commercial real estate investors are beginning to take notice and are allocating more of their money to this niche sector.

ā€œHistorically, investors in truck terminals were large trucking companies that wanted to own their own facilities, like Old Dominion ABF, SAIA, R&L, Carriers, Central Transport and ESTES,ā€ says Dean Brody, executive managing director and specialist in this investment area with real estate services firm JLL.

Today, this sub-sector is attracting big institutional investors and industrial real estate developers/investors. These include Centerpoint, Realterm Logistics, Terreno Realty, Brookfield, Duke Realty, Prologis, Stonemont, Altera, JP Morgan and others that have recently entered this market. Speculative development may not be far behind.

For example, in April, Chicago-based Dayton Street Partners acquired a 17,897-sq.-ft. truck terminal near Tampa International Airport in Florida from a private investor for an undisclosed price. The property is 100 percent leased to ABF Freight.

ā€œThis was a great opportunity to capitalize on increasing demand in the market and is part of a larger corporate strategy to invest in well-located, logistics-related real estate assets in Florida and throughout the U.S.,ā€ said DSP Principal Michael Schack in a statement.

Integrated Service Provider (ISP) facilities are essential to supply chain efficiencies, Brody notes. Amid higher transportation costs and driver shortages, the need for them has been growing over the pst 15 years.

ā€œThe e-commerce boom has accelerated demand for those facilities by multiples,ā€ Brody says.

ā€œThe purpose for these buildings is either redirecting cargo modeā€”usually from container to truckloadā€”or consolidating and redirecting freight direction and what freight rides together,ā€ according to John Morris, executive managing director and Americas industrial and logistics leader with real estate services firm CBRE.

De-containerizing cargo and transloading it onto trucks or rail cars facilitates logistics efficiencies, according to Brody. He explains, for example, that cargo from three 40-foot containers can fit into two 53-foot truck trailers, and it is more cost-effective for those trucks to deliver the cargo than directly transporting it over 50 miles to the final destination because the empty containers then must be returned to the origination point.

Markets that see the heaviest cargo movements have the highest demand for these functionalities, Morris notes. For example, there is a significant density of transload buildings in Southern Californiaā€™s Inland Empire, where cargo is often moved from the ports of Los Angeles or Long Beach, Calif. because it costs less to de-containerize it there than closer to the ports.

ā€œContainers coming in from China are dray-moved to these buildings, de-containerized into different trucks or rail cars and moved out to mostly points further east from there,ā€ Morris says.

The fee revenue models for these facilities are similar to any real estate tenancyā€”users typically own or lease them, according to Morris. However, many are also third-party facilities, where users are charged through a 3PL arrangement that is a blend of fixed and variable costs. Brody notes that pricing is on a per-door, per-month triple-net basis.

ISPs are located inĀ logistics hubs all over the country. Those near intermodal facilities and ports will have transload options, Brody says, noting that terminals in infill locations in places like Northern New Jersey, New York City outer boroughs, Chicago, Seattle, the San Francisco Bay area, Los Angeles and the Inland Empire are achieving the highest rents.

ISP property values are dependent on location, but cap rates on these assets tend to be on average 1.5 percent higher than those forĀ class-A warehouse properties, according to Brody. He notes that the spread is narrowing in core markets, where cap rates on ISP assets are now only 50 basis points to 100 basis points higher than for a warehouse, or might even be the same.

While returns on investment for ISP facilities are lower than those for warehouse properties, Morris says that they are marginally less expensive to develop, as transloading buildings do not require much clear height, and their structures typically do not need to support heavy automation. Such buildings also have lower coverage ratios, typically about one-tenth of the site, but they do require a lot of land to accommodate the higher number of axles travelling in and out than a traditional warehouse does.

ā€œISPs, which are basically concrete yards with a transloading facility, havenā€™t changed much over the last 50 years, except modern facilities have 100-foot dock doors as opposed to 70 to 90-foot doors found in older facilities, to provide greater flexibility in movement,ā€ Brody says.

Cities generally donā€™t allow the development of ISP facilities near large population centers, as they have several negative aspects: they are aesthetically unattractive and inherently involve heavy truck traffic and significant CO2 emissions. Therefore, Brody notes that there is tremendous value in land already zoned for ISPs.

Despite high demand for these facilities, they have traditionally been developed on a build-to-suit basis for single-tenant users, such as large Fortune 100 retailers or third-party logistics providers, including Fedex, UPS, XPO and National Retail Systems. But going forward, Brody expects that spec developers will soon begin capitalizing on the growing need for ISP buildings.

 

Source: Wealth Management

Sugar is Palm Beach Countyā€™s biggest agricultural product, and exports from the Port of Palm BeachĀ  have been one of the portā€™s top exports over the years.

Sugar exports increased 43 percent for the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, 2016, port officials saidĀ  this week. The raw sugar is transported to refineries by barge. Sugar cargo rose to 783,690 tons fromĀ  544,780Ā  in one year. The average sugar bargeā€™s load equates to 735 20-ton truckloads.

Transporting the sugar by barge from the Riviera Beach-based port to New York, as opposed to sending it byĀ  truck,Ā  eliminates approximately 93 million miles of truck traffic annually off of Interstate 95. Unlike most ports, the 162-acre port is an export port, with approximately 80 percent of its cargo consisting of exports.

The information was included in the portā€™s audited comprehensive financial report for fiscal year 2016, approved by the port commission in May. The commission authorized the portā€™s executive director, Manuel Almira, to submit the report to the Auditor General of the State of Florida. (To view the complete FY 2016 financial report, click here.)

ā€œThe Portā€™s continuing growth and increased financial strength over the past decade can be attributed to our Board of Commissionersā€™ unwavering commitment to securing new business for the Port, partnering with our existing tenants by supporting their operational needs at the Port, and maintaining a focused effort on controlling the Portā€™s costs,ā€ said commission chairman BlairĀ  Ciklin.

Overall cargo at the port was up 16 percent to 2.519 millionĀ  tons. The Port received 24 percentĀ  more vessel calls in 2016 versus 2015.

With Bahamas Paradise Cruise Lineā€™s 1,800-passenger Grand Celebration calling at the Port every other day, passenger counts rose 43 percent to 502,876.

While container tonnage in 2016 remained consistent with tonnage in 2015, break-bulk cargo saw the highest year-over-year increases within the general cargo category of 84 percent, to 98,801 tons from 53,546Ā  tons in 2015. Fuel oil was up 85 percent, to 98,354 tons fromĀ  53,045 tons. The port processed 37,122 tons of recycled steel, a 39 percent increase from 2015.

Net operating revenues of $16.6 million are at a 10-year high, up $5.5 million from their lowest point in 2009 during the recession and up 10 percent or $1.6 million from FY 2015. This was primarily due to increases in wharfage and dockage revenues.

As one of the largest employers in Palm Beach County, the Port of Palm Beach and its more than 30 tenants employ more than 2,850 people. Through the contribution of more than $185 million in business revenue and $17.5 million in tenant-contributed state and local annual tax revenue, the Port of Palm Beach is one of the largest economic engines in South Florida.

 

Source: Palm Beach Post