Site selection study ranks Chesterfield County among top 25 Logistic Friendly Cities

Published March 23, 2015 by Paula C. Squires

Chesterfield County has been named the top city in the East for operating a new distribution warehouse based on a  corporate site selection study.

 The study, done by The Boyd Co., a Princeton, N.J.-based firm that provides location counsel to U. S. and overseas corporations, compares the cost of operating a new distribution warehouse in a series of 25 U.S. cities named as the Most Logistics Friendly.

Operating costs in the study are scaled to a representative 500,000 square-foot distribution center employing 150 workers. The 2015 analysis includes several
geographically-variable factors critical to the corporate site selection process such as labor, real estate, construction, taxes, utilities and shipping.

According to the study, the total annual operating costs based on major geographical variables ranged from as much as $15 million in Stoughton, Mass., to a low of $11.2 million in Chesterfield.

Chesterfield joined Ritzville, Wash.; best city in the West, and Humble, Texas;, best city in the Gulf Coast Region, in the top tier of places for distribution warehouses.

According to The Boyd Co., most of the cities in the study are well positioned to attract new distribution warehousing investment in 2015 due to their proximity to both rail intermodal terminals and major deep-water container seaports.

The study said Chesterfield — which already has attracted a massive Amazon distribution center — is poised to benefit from growing port traffic at the Port of Virginia in Norfolk as a result of the expansion of the Panama Canal set to open next year.

The Boyd Co. said that the U.S. moves over $20 trillion in goods weighing more than 17 billion tons each year between domestic and international cities. Factors expected to boost international container shipments are a recovering global economy, new U. S. foreign trade agreements and growing U. S. exports.

Other cities in the top 25 included Casa Grande, Ariz., (near the port at LA/Long Beach); Patterson, Calif.; (near the port at Oakland, Calif.); and Cordele, Ga. (near the port at Savannah, Ga.).