- Site work will begin later this spring on a new Walgreens distribution center in Windsor, Conn. The drug store chain has signed a letter of intent to purchase a 130-acre site at the New England Tradeport. Walgreens plans to invest $175 million in the 700,000-square-foot facility, which will employ about 200 people when it opens in 2008.
- DHL began construction last month on what will soon be its largest U.S. service center. Located in New York City, the $181 million project will consolidate two existing service centers into the new 161,125-square-foot facility. The operation will service Manhattan's pickup, delivery and sorting operations and will feature a throughput capacity of 15,000 pieces per hour when it opens in May. It will employ 400 people. Plans also call for an addition of 44,225 square feet in the fall of 2007.
- Build-A-Bear Workshop, a retail chain that allows customers to create their own stuffed animal toys, plans to build a new 350,000-square-foot DC near Columbus, Ohio. The $24 million facility, which will employ 100 workers when it opens in September, will serve as the company's primary distribution facility. Build-A-Bear will continue to use third-party facilities in Toronto and Los Angeles and will convert a current 3PL-run facility in St. Louis into a pooling center.
- ProLogis, one of the world's largest developers of industrial distribution facilities, has leased a new 297,000- square-foot facility that's currently under development in northwest Houston to Goodman Manufacturing Co. Goodman makes heating and air-conditioning equipment.
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Gartner, Inc.
