Pictured above is a rendering of the multiple-building FedEx facility planned for a 99-acre site at 8341 Industrial Parkway. Company officials are expected to make the first portion of a $7 million contribution to Union County on Monday. (Graphic submitted)
Will be first portion of $7 million contribution to county
Union County officials are hoping FedEx’s first delivery will be made on time.
County officials said they are meeting Monday with FedEx developers to talk about construction progress and to collect a $1-million check. Monday’s payment is part of what Union County Engineer Jeff Stauch is calling a $7-million “required contribution” from the company. The remainder of the money will be paid when the building is complete.
42 Real Estate LLC is currently building a 530,000-square-foot trucking distribution center on 99 acres at 8341 Industrial Parkway in Jerome Township. The site will serve as a FedEx Ground shipping hub.
Officials expect the developer to invest more than $50 million dollars into the regional facility. The center is projected to create about 250 jobs, many of them for drivers, with about 50 to 75 employees working in the building.
A main building is planned to initially be about 488,000 square feet with an additional almost 42,000 square feet of buildings planned.
Stauch said the building appears to be on schedule.
“They are aggressively getting their work done,” Stauch said.
He said he expects the facility to be complete in “mid to late 2020.”
Stauch said there were some issues with water being pumped off the property and flooding neighboring land as well as some dust complaints. The engineer said he believes the company and neighboring land owners have resolved the problem
The $7-million payment was part of an agreement to get the facility’s traffic plan approved, a requirement for the development to move forward. Stauch said the county tries to have companies pay for any impact they might have on the nearby roads. The engineer said he tries to factor not only immediate changes, but long term impacts the development might have.
“We have tried to have a consistent approach that they are responsible to make contributions to mitigate impacts they generate,” Stauch said.
In addition to the 7-million in required contributions, 42 Real Estate LLC also agreed to make an additional $1.5 million in improvements to Industrial Parkway. The developer will create turn lanes from both north and south bound lanes and install a traffic light on the south driveway into the facility.
Stauch said the required contributions will be used for improvements to the Mitchell-Dewitt Road and Industrial Parkway intersections with U.S. 42, as well at the U.S. 33 interchange at Post Road.
According to the submitted traffic study, during the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas there would be 2,283 vehicles into and out of the facility, generating about 4,600 vehicles daily. According to the study, an estimated 250 vehicles would enter the facility and 230 would exit during the morning peak 7-8 a.m., with 254 trips in and 264 trips out of the facility during the evening peak hour of 5-6 p.m. During that peak time, most of the vehicles would be employee cars. The majority of truck traffic would be between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m.
Officials said the rest of the year would be about 70 percent of the holiday numbers and total about 3,200 total daily trips.
Unrelated to the FedEx project, the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) has agreed to make improvements to U.S. 42 in the area.
At its intersection with Industrial Parkway, U.S. 42 will be widened to five lanes. Turn lanes will be added on all four legs of the intersection. The widened section will continue to the interchange with U.S. 33 where it will transition to meet the four-lane section.
The plan also calls for right turn lanes to be added on U.S. 42 for the entrance ramps onto U.S. 33 and on the U.S. 33 exit ramps onto U.S. 42. Signals will be added on U.S. 42 on both sides of the U.S. 33 interchange.
Officials explained that due to the size and location of the proposal, it would be split into two projects. Each project is expected to take only one season. The interchange with U.S. 33 is expected to be done in 2020. The intersection at Industrial Parkway would be done in 2021 or 2022. While the overall construction will take longer, officials say that by creating two projects, the road will hopefully be easier to navigate during the work.