Following our firm’s report to the Governor’s Inland Port Exploratory Committee about the feasibility of developing a large-scale multimodal port, the Committee met this past week to consider our recommendations.

GLDPartners’ analysis suggested that a project developed on parts of the 7,000 acres adjacent to Interstate-80, the transcontinental Union Pacific Railroad line and the Salt Lake City International Airport (SLC) could be quite successful as an integrated distribution and production complex.  SLC which is a Delta Airlines hub, is currently undergoing a $3B rebuild and will be the newest and most modern airport in the US when complete.

GLDPartners recommended a plan to create a “Utah Global TradePort” on property bisected by I-80 and north and south of the UPRR line.  This area is immediately adjacent to the new SLC Airport complex.  Our analytics of Utah’s investment attraction competitiveness and its position within the continental logistics system suggests a project of scale with various focus areas, ranging from and including developing as an Intermountain West regional distribution hub, an outbound commodity consolidation point, a high-tech manufacturing center for high-velocity supply chains, among others.

After consideration of the feasibility report, the Governor’s Committee voted to recommend to the Governor that a Utah Global TradePort project be pursued and to explore a purpose-built delivery entity created with local and State government to plan, coordinate, promote and deliver infrastructure for a complex industrial project of scale.

More generally, we see substantial value to be developed at strategic inland hubs that will be benefitted by access to/from load center seaports on the West Coast, Gulf Coast and East Coast of the US.  Depending on the market, we believe that with proper partnerships and infrastructure, some inland hub locations located between 250 to 750 miles inland from a load center port can develop as inbound distribution and forward deployment centers, and cost competitive outbound consolidation/packaging and manufacturing hubs.  It is our view that these hubs can be very valuable to their seaport partners by providing them important outbound cargo and inbound cargo centers, relieving congestion near the ports.  Utah could provide just that value for one or more West Coast seaports.

See more about the Utah feasibility study announcement from last summer: Aug, 2017: Inland Port Committee Launches Feasibility Study

GLDPartners is an international investment and advisory firm that specializes in revenue and infrastructure development projects at and around high-opportunity airports, seaports and strategic trade and logistics hubs.  The foundation for GLDPartners’ work is its proprietary Market Competitiveness Model which can accurately portray a realistic forward-view of competitiveness.  The Company also advises global companies about supply chain strategy and corporate facility location.  GLDPartners is headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona, with offices in New York, Washington DC and in the UK.  www.gldpartners.com