FedEx distribution hub breaks ground in Tracy

By Reed Fujii

Record Staff Writer

Posted Mar. 21, 2015 at 12:01 AM

TRACY — FedEx Corp. joined with local and state officials Friday to formally break ground on a sprawling 660,000-square-foot distribution hub on South Hansen Road, one of 34 major U.S. distribution centers for its FedEx Ground service.

Expected to open in August 2016 and initially employing about 390 people, the hub is part of $3 billion the delivery company has spent in expanding FedEx Ground over the past five years, said Kathy Thurston, FedEx Ground managing operations director for Northern California.

She said the Tracy location was selected due to the company’s experience with the community and knowledge of the area’s work force.

“Our success depends on the strength and dedication of our people,” Thurston said.

FedEx is the first company to announce its location in the new 1,700-acre Prologis International Park of Commerce west of Tracy. Prologis earlier began construction of a 1 million-square-foot distribution center at Schulte Road and Mountain House Parkway without an occupant in hand.

And Tracy officials promise more are to come.

“This is just the beginning, folks,” city Mayor Mike Maciel said at groundbreaking ceremonies.

He gave credit to previous city administrations for, in the midst of the Great Recession, having the foresight to move forward with preparing the Prologis site, formerly known as Cordes Ranch, for development. Most people might have hit pause during the economic downturn.

“The leaders in our community … said, ‘No, we need to take some steps now to be ready to act,” Maciel said.

That approach brought to reality the Prologis and FedEx projects.

And city officials said one more project, just north of the FedEx site on Hansen Road, is under construction but has not been formally announced. Andrew Malik, city development director, said it will be a 1.2 million-square-foot distribution center employing about 500 people for a major medical supply company.

Lewis Gale, dean of the Eberhardt School of Business at University of the Pacific in attendance at the groundbreaking, said San Joaquin County’s proximity to the San Francisco Bay Area is leading to its role as a regional transportation and logistics center.

“This is evidence how important the Bay Area economy is to us,” he said. “There are advantages and disadvantages to being close to the Bay Area and this is one of the advantages.”

FedEx said its planned distribution hub will handle up to 22,500 packages an hour, collecting them from local delivery stations from Lodi to Merced and from Brentwood to Groveland.

Truck trailers will move those packages to other FedEx Ground hubs throughout the West, Midwest and to the East Coast. And from the hubs the packages will move out to the more than 500 U.S. local delivery stations.

FedEx has not yet begun hiring package handlers and others for the new hub. That process should begin two to three months before the facility opens and job seekers should check the careers page at FedEx.com for more information.

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