Kansas City Business Journal

BNSF Wraps Up Intermodal Development Agreement

May 10, 2007

BNSF Railway Co. finalized land purchase and pre-development agreements for an intermodal hub and logistics park near Gardner.

San Diego-based industrial developer The Allen Group now has exclusive rights to buy and develop 579 acres of the 997-acre site. BNSF will keep the remaining 418 acres for its intermodal facility, planned for a 2009 opening.

Logistics Park-Kansas City will be BNSF’s third logistics park project of that size, BNSF spokesman Steve Forsberg said Thursday.

BNSF’s Logistics Park-Chicago is very similar to the Gardner project, Forsberg said, and has grown the fastest in volume of any intermodal hub on the BNSF lines. The current 45-acre Kansas City, Kan., intermodal has ranked second in volume growth.

The Allen Group plans to build about 7 million square feet of speculative warehousing and distribution center space on the site, Bill Crandall, president of Allen Development of Kansas, said recently.

“Kansas City is in sort of a prime position for developers like The Allen Group because, other than one recently announced 600,000-square foot speculative distribution center, there are no others on the market,” he said. “We’re getting an inventory of distribution centers ready for market.”

The companies announced their partnership in October.

Logistics Park-Kansas City is expected to attract a $1 billion investment, create 13,000 jobs and generate $30 billion in new sales revenue in Kansas in 20 years.