By Karen E. Thuermer, AJOTRichard Allen, CEO, The Allen Group, recently said:  “Growth in distribution is all about containerized shipments.” One only has to view the investment steamship lines are committing to larger containerships to realize this fact. Much of this has to do with the flood of goods that continue to be imported from Asia – although now at a slower pace due to the recession. But the movement of containers does not end at the dock. These steel boxes, measured as twenty-foot equivalent units (or TEUs), find their way to warehouse and distribution centers (DCs) via truck or rail. Logistics operators and developers have grabbed onto this trend by building scores of DCs and warehouses near seaports or within close access to transportation networks such as highway networks or intermodal transfer facilities. Consider the Port of Virginia, which has emerged as one of the leading ports on the East Coast. The port is a huge draw for large third party logistics operators (3PLs) and DC developers despite a 25 percent drop in cargo volume in the past year. CenterPoint Properties, a leading inland port developer, is developing its $350 million massive intermodal center in Suffolk. The 921-acre planned integrated logistics center is bordered by over 10,000 linear feet of mainline frontage along a CSX Railroad mainline and located 20 miles from the terminals at the Port of Virginia. The DC has good company. The development is situated across the street from the nearly 2 million square foot Target import warehouse facility. Centerpoint Intermodal Center will accommodate up to 5.8 million square feet of industrial facilities at full build-out and designated areas for related container/equipment management. State officials claim Virginia’s Hampton Roads area needs more than 61 million square feet of additional space for current and future transportation-related commerce. Shorter Route to Market With shippers taking overland transportation costs increasingly into consideration and, therefore, bringing goods closer to market rather than via mini landbridge across the United States, many are booking their freight on steamship lines that call on East and Gulf Coast ports. This has given rise to scores of DCs popping up near these seaports. The need for these DCs has increased as ocean carriers have also routed more ships to the East and Gulf ports to take advantage of this shift in trade routing. The trend will only escalate when the widening of the Panama Canal is completed in 2014, making it possible for larger ships to transit the Canal and call more quickly on East and Gulf Coast ports. The Port of Savannah, for example, has become a magnet for retail DCs. Close to the seaport are found operations for high volume retailers such as Wal-Mart, Target, Kmart/Sears, Dollar Tree, Ikea, Pier I Imports, and The Home Depot. That, added by the Port of Savannah’s extensive portfolio of all-water express services, has given rise to the port being pegged “America’s Retail Port”.  In fact, 20 Savannah-area distribution centers combine to generate over 500,000 TEUs annually. Another factor impacting the popularity of importing goods via the East and Gulf Coasts, thereby supporting DC activity in these regions is, oddly enough, the economic downturn. Because the downturn resulted in less volume of freight, these economically challenging times have put pressure on per unit costs as excess space becomes greater than normal, explains Tim Feemster, senior vice president/director of Global Logistics for the Grubb & Ellis Co. “Consequently, there is a continuing shift to import product on the Gulf and Atlantic Coast ports in lieu of the West Coast,” Feemster says. Intermodal Movement Inland distribution remains equally important in the movement of goods around the United States. In fact, today when 3PL operators talk to prospective clients, much of their discussion centers on optimizing DC locations as well as the intricacies of i