GRAYSLAKE, IL-FedEx Ground has announced plans to build a $37 million new packing and sorting station here on Route 83, north of Peterson Road. This will be the fifth such facility for the company in the Chicago area.
The new 217,000-square-foot building, to open in late 2011, will serve the ground shipping needs with automated material handling technology. This machinery allows the company to sort and dispatch packages in up to 130 vans per day to make deliveries in the area.
A company spokesman tells GlobeSt.com that even though the economy is still slow, package demand is still growing, to about 3.3 million mail pieces per day. “We’ve been holding our own,” he says. “We’ve opened or relocated more than 500 locations around the country, including nine new hubs, since embarking on our expansion plan in 2002. We can now deliver more than half of our packages in two days or less.”
The village, county and local school districts agreed to tax incentives to allow the new facility. Employment at the new facility could grow to 500 people when at full operation. “Enhancing our distribution capability in the Midwest is an important step in our ongoing efforts to increase the size, speed and efficiency of our network,” said James Prim, VP of the company’s Central Region, in a statement. The company opened one of the $125 million distribution hubs in Bedford Park, IL in summer 2009.
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