Hunter’s Green Business Center II near Hagerstown. The company expects to be operating the 335,000 square foot distribution hub by 2006.
The Hagerstown facility, to be known as the Mid-Atlantic Processing Center, is the first of 10 planned processing centers to be built around the country during the next six years as part of the company’s $1.8 billion network expansion plan.
The plan, announced last September, also calls for the expansion of 23 existing hubs and the expansion or relocation of more than 300 pickup and delivery terminals.
The expansion will nearly double the company’s average daily volume capacity from 2.5 million to 4.8 million packages in response to increasing customer demand.
The Hagerstown facility will initially process about 30,000 packages an hour and is expected to employ 400 full- and part-time workers and independent contractors. At full capacity, the hub will process up to 45,000 packages per hour and could employ more than 1,000 workers.
The site was chosen for its proximity to customers’ distribution centers and major highways, as well as its access to a strong local employee base.
FedEx Ground is getting a $1.2 million conditional grant from the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development (DBED) to help with the cost of building the new facility.
DBED also will provide work force training for the company’s projected 400 new employees during a two-year period. Additional incentives include a $200,000 conditional grant from Washington County, eligibility for a Job Creation Tax Credit and a Maryland Commuter Tax Credit.
“The Mid-Atlantic region is home to a large concentration of manufacturers and is critical to our continued success,” said Daniel J. Sullivan, president and CEO of FedEx Ground. “The new facility will complement our Harrisburg (Pa.) operation in better meeting the needs of a strong and growing customer base and will serve as a consolidation and distribution point for shipments destined to and from other parts of the country.”
Near the Nation’s Capital
Maryland’s location near the nation’s capital has helped the state place itself on the leading edge of one of the nation’s latest sectors — homeland security.
The Annapolis-based Chesapeake Innovation Center (CIC) is the first technology incubator in the United States that specializes in developing high-tech homeland security companies.
The National Security Agency and Nokia/Innovent are founding partners of the CIC. The University of Maryland, Johns Hopkins University and Anne Arundel Community College have agreed to be the incubator’s educational partners.
CIC’s first client company is Lighthouse Communication Services, which provides wireless voice and data technology combined with GPS technology to support emergency response teams, roadside assistance operations and personal security features of mobile communications equipment.
“Lighthouse offers an innovative approach to enhancing safety, security and information services for consumers, as well as homeland security applications for federal, state and local government agencies,” said Patrick Shay, president and CEO of Lighthouse. “CIC’s flexible facilities, instant access to strategic contacts and on-site consulting will prove invaluable to our business development.”
CIC will provide early-stage companies with coaching on business development and advice on how to raise capital to grow its business.
SBI Technologies Corp. will hire 150 new workers by 2006 after expanding its Columbia facility. DBED offered the company a $27,500 work force training grant from the Partnership for Workforce Quality Program, and nearly $170,000 in job creation tax credits.
SBI is an information technology and engineering services company that specializes in geospatial analysis and engineering, systems/software design and development, network/security engineering, and e-learning. Maryland’s proximity to Washington, D.C., is critical to SBI’s work in intelligence and Department of Defense programs.
Small business entrepreneurs run 95 percent of all companies in Maryland. One of those businesses, Branner Woodworking Inc., recently
announced plans to expand its Baltimore facility.
With a $40,000 loan from the Maryland Competitive Advantage Financing Fund (MCAFF), Branner, a high-end residential cabinetry and architectural woodworking company, will purchase and renovate a 4,800 square foot commercial building to meet its expansion needs.
In order to help small companies, Maryland established the MCAFF loan program to provide direct loans to businesses with less than $1 million in sales.
As Maryland’s business culture evolves, the state is focusing on diversity. Mountainside Teleport Corp., a subsidiary of Intelsat Global Service Corp., will develop a satellite communications teleport center at Allegheny Energy’s Friendship Technology Park near Hagerstown after receiving a $600,000 conditional loan from DBED.
Mountainside Teleport is Friendship Technology Park’s first tenant.
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