Informally known as the "Crossroads of the West," Utah long has been viewed as a place ideally suited as a staging ground for the movement of manufactured goods between the East and West coasts, Canada and Mexico.
A study by The Boyd Co. of Princeton, N.J., found that the state and the Salt Lake City area in particular, have a lot more going for them than just their central location and easy access to the interstate highway system and major railroad lines. The cost of operating a 500,000-square-foot distribution warehouse locally, that employed 175 workers at annual salary of $31,500 was $15.1 million a year, the second lowest among 30 cities it studied.
Many cash-strapped communities are actively courting logistics industries because the economic benefits are clear, he said. Large warehouses that sit on huge parcels of property can translate into a significant source of property tax revenue. And many of the jobs no longer entail just stacking cardboard boxes or driving a forklift to move and load pallets of merchandise onto a waiting truck.
For Utah, that means the competition for new warehousing projects will be getting a lot tougher, John Boyd Jr., a principal in The Boyd Co. said. Still, he anticipates that new warehouse and distribution facilities will be a major source of new investment and jobs for the state in the years ahead, making the state a major player. Salt Lake Tribune
