- Discount Tire has leased a new facility in Miami County, Ind., for use as a regional distribution center. The spec building at the Grissom Aeroplex will be operated by Exel Logistics. It is expected to employ 68 people when it opens next month.
- The Kroger Co. is selling its distribution center in Jefferson County, Ky., to two privately held companies. Under the agreement, Zenith Logistics will lease the 776,000-square-foot facility near Louisville from Kroger. Its partner, Transervice Logistics, will handle transportation to stores. Kroger has made similar deals in the past with DCs in Cincinnati and Indianapolis.
- General Electric has broken ground on a new 850,000square-foot distribution center in southeast Tennessee. The facility, near Interstate 75 in Charleston, will distribute appliances and is expected to employ 200 people.
- Boise Building Materials Distribution (BBMD) is building a new distribution center in Milton, Fla., near Pensacola. A division of Boise Cascade LLC, BBMD is a wholesale distributor of building materials. Construction of an 80,000square-foot warehouse has begun on the 27-acre site, with completion and startup scheduled for late in the first quarter of 2007.
- JohnsonDiversey Inc., a supplier of cleaning and hygiene products, has announced it will build a 550,000square-foot, $22 million distribution center in Sturtevant, Wis. The company hopes to earn a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification from the U.S. Green Building Council for the new facility, which is slated to open in September 2007. Once the building is operational, the aim is to reduce water use by 30 percent and energy use by more than 40 percent beyond state of Wisconsin building code requirements. Building materials used in the facility's construction will have more than 20-percent recycled content.
- Ralph Lauren Media will lease a $40 million distribution and fulfillment center in High Point, N.C., for its Polo.com online retail operations. The new facility will handle fulfillment and distribution for all online orders for the company's Polo brand clothing and accessories, as well as some product customization, such as embroidering, and customer service. Construction should begin this month, with the facility set to open in the summer of 2007.
- Libbey Glass has opened a 646,000-square-foot distribution center in Shreveport, La. The new distribution center consolidates services previously provided by six buildings. It will serve the Southeast and lower Midwestern states, along with the company's export business south of the United States and into Europe.
- AVAD LLC, a distributor of custom home electronics, has opened a new distribution center in Raleigh, N.C. At 17,000 square feet, the new facility is large enough to stock the company's complete inventory of audio video system solutions, as well as house the company's product training, technical support and sales support operations.
- Ace Hardware plans to break ground in early 2007 on a 275,000-square-foot addition to its distribution center in Prescott Valley, Ariz. The addition will expand the facility to nearly 900,000 square feet. The center supports more than 300 Ace retailers in Arizona, as well as stores in California, Nevada and Utah.
- Crowley Maritime Corp. has opened a new distribution center at the Jacksonville International Tradeport business park in Jacksonville, Fla. The move increases Crowley's local warehouse capacity by about a third to 34,000 square feet and nearly doubles existing pallet positions to more than 1,500. Crowley has had a Jacksonville distribution center for more than five years and in that time has relocated and expanded three times to meet increased demand. Crowley provides cross-docking services for domestic trailer cargo into ocean containers, and stores and consolidates freight for domestic and international transportation.
- Retailer Build-A-Bear Workshop Inc. has opened a 350,000-square-foot facility in Groveport, Ohio, that will serve as the primary distribution center for its North American store operations. The company previously used three distribution centers operated by third parties in St. Louis, Toronto and Los Angeles. The company will continue to use the Toronto center and will transition the St. Louis center to a distribution pool point for local markets.
- Mt. Sterling, Ill.-based Dot Foods will build a 200,000square-foot distribution center in Cambridge City, Ind., that will serve its suppliers in the Midwest and on the East Coast. The facility, which will include a cold storage freezer to house both perishable and non-perishable goods, is expected to be fully operational by August 2007.
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