Freight terminal permit approved
May 13, 2008
FedEx Corp. is planning to spend up to $40 million on a trucking facility near
Memphis International Airport, real estate sources say.
During the Memphis and Shelby County Land Use Control Board meeting Thursday,
Dallas-based Hillwood Investment Properties was granted a special use permit for
77.76 acres on the south side of Holmes and the east side of Airways Boulevard.
The proposed structure and freight terminal will include a 33,600-square-foot
office building, a 58,200-square-foot maintenance facility and an 81-bay center
for a trucking operation.
Hillwood attorney Homer Branan, who would not confirm the company's identity,
but referred to it as a Fortune 500 firm that "is part of the transportation
infrastructure of the city of Memphis and the airport."
"It all has to do with the airport and the concept of aerotropolis," he said.
"Everyone has been very delighted to see that this vacant land . is going to be
put to very good use by a very responsible company that has a very significant
connection to the airport and the transportation infrastructure."
In addition to improving the lots, the company plans to widen Airways from two
lanes to five to improve traffic flow, Branan said. Landowners near the corner
are under contract to sell property so improvements can be made down the entire
roadway.
"There is a hill, and visibility is not real good to see oncoming cars, so we
have agreed with the (Memphis) city engineering department to cut that hill down
four feet so there will be good visibility," Branan said.
The facility will be located in the boundaries of the Memphis Airport Area Land
Use Study, which designates the intersection as a planned business park with
industrial warehousing. The area is zoned for light industrial use.
The study, adopted in 1992, was designed as a guide for land use in areas close
to the airport.
The office/trucking center will be set back several hundred feet from both
streets. It will also have 200-foot landscaped buffer to shield neighbors, which
include Longstreet United Methodist Church, Patterson Warehouses and Forest Hill
Funeral Homes.
The neighbors, plus Memphis-Shelby County Airport Authority, wrote letters in
support of the project.
The project also has the support of the Federal Aviation Administration and
Memphis Airport Area Development Corp.
"This is the only piece of property that is large enough in this area close to
the airport that a facility of this nature can be sited," Branan said. "This
company's first choice was to be in the city of Memphis and near the airport."
Source: he Commercial Appeal
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