Article: Honing in on Inland Port

01-Oct-2010 Florida Trend/FloridaTrend.com

Off U.S. Highway 90 outside Columbia County's Lake City, a big white sign stands incongruously in front of a forest of young pine trees: "Future Site of Inland Port." After years of work, the state and 14 counties launched the 2,500-acre industrial-development project this fall to create a catalyst for business investment in a region that suffered low wages and high unemployment rates well before the economic downturn.

Despite its location at the crossroads of Interstates 75 and 10, with rail spurs that link up to CSX and Norfolk Southern, Lake City has never attracted much industry. The region's business and civic leaders hope to change the area's fortunes by focusing their energy on one major inland port project rather than scattershot economic development efforts.

While this year's Legislature funneled $300,000 for engineering and site work, the inland port would not have taken root without Plum Creek Timber, the largest private landowner in the United States and the largest in Florida. Seattle-based Plum Creek owns the site and surrounding land and will develop the port as its first master-planned industrial project in the United States.

Plum Creek and regional leaders hope the flow of international goods...

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