(The San Bernardino Sun posted the following article by Vince Lovato on its website on May 6.)
SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. — After more than a year of pondering, Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Co. officials are no closer to selecting a site for the company’s $150 million rail complex, which is expected to serve as a catalyst for one of the county’s major job-generating industries.
Officials from Victorville’s Southern California Logistics Airport and San Bernardino International Airport hope to attract the intermodal facility as part of their decades-long redevelopment plans.
The intermodal complex would create hundreds of on-site jobs but would also serve to attract logistics and manufacturing businesses which are both labor intensive to the area surrounding the sites.
As far back as spring of 2002, BNSF officials said they were actively talking to officials at both airports about the pros and cons of their locations.
But “a decision hasn’t been made and there is no date set to make an announcement,’ regarding the location of the intermodal complex, BNSF spokeswoman Lena Kent said Monday.
She said the state’s economy and budget gap do not affect BNSF’s decision.
“We’re just going through the process and evaluating our options,’ Kent said. “We’ve set it in the Inland Empire but not necessarily in the (San Bernardino) county. We’ve said in the past (SBIA) was the preferred site, but we’re keeping our options open.’
Some industry officials said there would be enough business for both airports to lure an intermodal complex but “it is not the company’s policy to speculate,’ Kent said.
Orange County-based Stirling Airports International, which is the marketing company for the Victorville-owned airport, announced agreements in 2002 with the Pasha Group and Catellus Development Corp.
Along with Stirling, the two were predicted to be the cornerstones that would help attract logistics companies and manufacturing plants over the next 20 years that would create 20,000 jobs with an estimated $500 million annual payroll.
Catellus spokeswoman Margan Mitchell said Monday her company is effective at developing property, but Stirling has to bring the businesses to the airport first.
“They are the marketer and we are the master planner and vertical developer,’ Mitchell said. “We will develop 43 million square feet over time, but we don’t have anything on our hot sheet.’
Catellus agreed to develop $1.5 billion worth of buildings on 6,000 acres making SCLA easily the largest commercial development in the county.
The Pasha Group, one of the world’s largest automobile logistics companies, will build a 700-acre intermodal complex at SCLA where it could sort as many as 550,000 cars annually, officials said.
In 2002, Stirling attracted international aerospace giants General Electric and Pratt & Whitney to join BAE Systems, Boeing, Southern California Aviation and adjunct customers such as UPS and Delta Airlines to the airport. Since then, BAE Systems closed its facility and GE’s test facility is under construction.
Hillwood Investments, a division of Texas-based Hillwood Development Corp., has the assignment of marketing SBIA where officials hope to create 10,000 jobs at the former Norton Air Force Base.
Senior Vice President John Magness said the timing for development in Victorville was premature but SBIA was perfectly positioned to expand in the nearer future.
Over time, there will be plenty of business for inland airports that sit on the end of the Alameda Corridor, which starts at the ports in Long Beach and Los Angeles, Magness said.
Some economists said up to one-third of all Asian exports to the Southwestern states comes through the Alameda Corridor and both transportation hubs are well positioned to handle cargo as it heads out of state.
Development at SBIA does face several obstacles: neighbors have concerns about the additional noise, traffic congestion and environmental impact. The endangered kangaroo rat that thrives there is protected and unusually high levels of radiation have been discovered on parts of the proposed development sites.
SBIA is also landlocked with 600 acres of expansion left compared to SCLA which is more than 5,000 acres now and is expected to almost double in size at build out.