Article: Freight State

01-Mar-2010 Florida Trend/ FloridaTrend.com

Florida's largest landowners are planning to capitalize by changing the way freight moves around the state.

When state lawmakers met in Tallahassee in December for a special session on rail, the headlines were all about passenger trains: The law that emerged from the session cinched the SunRail commuter system for central Florida, upped funding for south Florida’s Tri-Rail system, and set the stage for a long-coveted high-speed passenger train between Tampa and Orlando. A month later, when President Barack Obama came to Florida to award the initial $1.25 billion for the Tampa-Orlando link, the news again was about moving people.

But passenger trains are just part of the transportation story in Florida. Changes in the way freight moves around the peninsula could be even more significant for Florida’s future.

Changing global trade patterns, driven in part by the supersized cargo ships that soon will begin traveling through the widened Panama Canal, may create a boom in freight-related and light manufacturing industries in the state.

And five of the top 10 private landowners in the state are angling to cash in by developing integrated logistics centers (ILCs), facilities where containers of freight are moved from railcars to trucks and vice versa. Along with freight-handling facilities, the logistics centers — sometimes called "inland" logistics centers or "inland ports" — typically include warehouses, distribution centers and often manufacturing operations near a major rail line...

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