The Garden City Telegram

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Logistics company plans to locate in G.C.

Published 12/7/2011 in Local News

By SHAJIA AHMAD

sahmad@gctelegram.com

A Wyoming-based logistics company has signed a contract with Finney County officials to lease county-owned land at an industrial site in Garden City, and could be moving dirt in the upcoming weeks, company representatives said.

County commissioners met with representatives from Casper, Wyo.-based Transportation Partners and Logistics LLC during a brief special meeting early Tuesday to sign a one-year lease to use 35 acres of county-owned land at a site near the intersection of Jennie Barker Road and U.S. Highway 50/400.

The logistics company plans to utilize the site that is adjacent to the railroad tracks as an offloading and distribution site for wind generating components, such as blades, towers and more. The site will be used to unload, store and transfer wind turbine components from railcars to trucks, they said.

Representatives of the company, President Jim Orr and Vice President Billy Brenton, said in a separate interview that they expect their new operations to generate 20 to 25 full-time jobs, including jobs for crane operators, riggers, quality control employees and on-site managers.

About five of those jobs will be employed by outsiders, according to the company president.

"The rest will be local, if we can find them," Orr said.

The company's move to Garden City is contingent upon the business reaching private agreements with Wind River Grain, 2810 E. U.S. Highway 50, and Conestoga Energy, 2830 E. U.S. Highway 50, to utilize the railway adjacent to their property, according to Lona Duvall, interim president of the Finney County Economic Development Corp.

Duvall said the business contacted local officials like herself last Thursday about their interest in the county-owned industrial site, and a deal was quickly worked out between county and company officials to lease the property.

"They're a logistics company, which means they get stuff from point to point. ... They needed a location close to their clients in the wind industry. Garden City fit into that parameter," Duvall said. "Now the public entities have cleared the way."

The lease agreement county commissioners unanimously approved Tuesday includes rental of the land through Dec. 31, 2012, at a rate of $45,000, or $3,750 per month.

The legal agreement also reads, "In the event that TP&L is not successful in securing the business activity related to the wind tower, TP&L will have the right to cancel this agreement and pay Finney County a sum of $3,750."

The company's representatives said in a separate interview that they do not plan to build any permanent structures at the site, only mobile offices.

Orr and Brenton also said though they are based out of Wyoming and they have another logistics office in Fort Worth, Texas, they chose the Garden City area due to its location and because their clients and contractors are located in surrounding states, such as Oklahoma, Colorado and southern Nebraska.

Orr said it is his and his business partner's hope that they will work out private agreements with the neighboring businesses at the site in order to operate the railroad track in the next few weeks before they start ground work.

The county acquired proprietorship of the 50-acre property through a private-public agreement and with the aid of city officials in the hope of turning the location into an industrial park.

Starting in 2010, local officials worked to acquire the land via an agreement that included the two governmental agencies, Bonanza BioEnergy (Conestoga) and the Kansas Department of Transportation. As part of the legal agreement, the city and county agreed to pay off a $1 million KDOT loan for Bonanza at a 2 percent interest rate over the next decade.

In exchange for loan's repayment, the ethanol company agreed to sell its 50-acre property to the county for $1.

KDOT also supplied the ethanol company with a half-a-million-dollar grant for the construction of its $2.58 million railroad spur adjacent to the plant, to accommodate the company's increased track usage.

Company officials had said at the time they'd be open to allowing other new business to share the railway and railway spur.

City Manager Matt Allen, along with Mayor John Doll, also were present at Tuesday's brief county meeting, where county commissioners signed and approved the company's lease agreement.

Allen said he did not have many comments to share, but did say he appreciated the quick turnaround.

"Just a thank you for your timely response to the prospect," Allen told county commissioners Tuesday.

In addition, County Commissioner Dave Jones commended the work of FCEDC staff and board members on the project.

"I want to commend (FCEDC) folks," he said, adding jokingly that it was nice to see more than a "hot dog stand" on the industrial land.

TP&L is one of the many business prospects the publicly-funded economic development corporation is working with in the interest of its public partners: Finney County, Garden City, Holcomb and Garden City Community College.

Most businesses remain unidentified until substantial progress on their expansion or relocation is made, due to FCEDC honoring confidentiality agreements with the prospective clients.

Another unidentified business that FCEDC staff have been working with also has located a property that meets its needs in Finney County and is expected to create at least 80-full-time jobs at full operations. Duvall has said city and county officials are working on a tax abatement package for the relocating business, which also remains unnamed due to confidentiality agreements.

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