FedEx Freight to Expand Facilities at Colorado Springs Airport
FedEx Freight plans to move its Colorado Springs, Colo., terminal to a site it will lease that a Kentucky developer is buying from the Colorado Springs Airport, the airport's director said May 2.
The city of Colorado Springs filed planning documents May 2 for approval of a concept plan, zoning change and other changes for "Project Vector" that would allow construction of three buildings totaling 47,000 square feet on about 30 acres in the northwest corner of the Colorado Springs Airport. The three buildings would include a cargo terminal with 64 loading bays for semi-trucks with room to expand to 100 bays, a maintenance and repair building and a small office building that would be built by Setzer Properties, according to a resolution approved unanimously March 28 by the City Council.
FedEx ranks No. 2 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of the largest U.S. and Canadian for-hire carriers.
The site is just across Powers Boulevard from a 200,000-square-foot distribution center FedEx Ground opened in 2015.
Airport director Greg Phillips said FedEx Freight would lease the property from Setzer once it acquires the site from the airport. The Lexington, Ky.-based company, which builds distribution facilities for FedEx and other companies, has agreed to pay the airport $1.1 million for the site, which the airport acquired more than 25 years ago for "noise abatement." Phillips said the airport plans to use the money to either pay off debt or for a capital improvement project, though no specific project has yet been identified.
"This is a great move for the community. The land has been vacant for more than 25 years and to have a tenant like FedEx is a great addition to the community. It will help build this area as a Southern Colorado distribution point for FedEx," Phillips said.
FedEx Freight now operates a 12,000-square-foot distribution center at 110 Mount View Lane, a block west of North Nevada Avenue, that was built in 1980 and acquired by FedEx when it bought the parent company of Viking Freight Inc. in 1998. FedEx Freight specializes in less-than-a-truckload cargo transportation for businesses — generally loads between 150 and 20,000 pounds that don't fill a full semitrailer, according to its website.
Phillips said Setzer first approached the airport about acquiring the site in 2015.
