PepsiCo recently announced its decision to locate a new major facility in South Albany, Ore. The 1.8 million square foot production and container facility will seek LEEDS (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification, a benchmark for high performance “green” buildings.

The $250 million dollar facility will create 500 jobs for the area, with average salaries of more than $45,000, plus full health benefits.

State economic development officials have worked with city and landowners for site certification since PepsiCo first expressed interest in the location.

To certify industrial lands through the Governor’s Industrial Lands Certification program, the state of Oregon works with local property owners, realtors, municipalities and collaborating state agencies to compile a comprehensive certification package for prospective companies.

Earlier in the year, PepsiCo announced that it will build a 1.5 million square foot facility in Pryor, Okla. The plant will be built on a fast-track construction timeline, with the intent to be operational by the end of 2007.

The building, packaging, processing and warehousing operations will cost about $180 million to build. Gatorade estimated that the facility will have a $5 billion to $7 billion impact on the regional economy during the first 10 years of operation.

The facility will service the six-to-eight state area in the South Central Region. The plant will ultimately employ 280 workers, and hiring for some positions will take place as early as January.

“We are pleased to award Oklahoma as the site of our plant,” said Chuck Maniscalco, president of The Gatorade Co. “Pryor is a wonderful community and an important transportation hub in the South Central Region. We weighed many economic, community, environmental and resource factors in our final decision, and we are happy to call Oklahoma home to our ninth manufacturing and distribution facility.”

Gatorade was looking at several locations for the new facility, and Oklahoma was a late entry into the process, according to state economic development officials.

“With the ever-increasing demand for Gatorade and Propel, our business continues to grow at staggering rates,” said Jim Lynch, senior vice president of supply chain for QTG (Quaker-Tropicana-Gatorade). “The need for a ninth distribution and manufacturing facility is a testament to that growth and we are excited to partner with the state of Oklahoma to realize that.”

The new Gatorade plant will be located on 165 acres on Highway 69A at MidAmerica, west of the existing Covalence (formerly Tyco) plastics plant. The development will have a collective size of about 1.5 million square feet, which will include a 400,000 square foot production facility and a 1.1 million square foot warehouse and distribution center.

MidAmerica Industrial Park is a 9,000-acre manufacturing, processing and distribution center located south of Pryor.

Founded in 1960, the park now has a 365-acre regional business airport with a 5,000-foot runway, and it owns the wastewater and water treatment plants.

The nation’s largest rural industrial park, MidAmerica is owned and operated as a self-sustaining public trust established to enhance economic development and job creation efforts in Northeast Oklahoma. More than 75 firms are located in the park, including divisions of eight Fortune 500 and 10 Global 500 companies.

China to Establish Logistics Center

The YaSheng Group is in the process of setting up a major logistics center in San Bernardino County, Calif. The YaSheng Asian Pacific Logistics Center has been given the final approval by the Chinese government to go forward with construction of the 80-acre site in San Bernardino County.

The company has received support from the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors and Economic Development Department.

Initial ground and aerial surveys of the site have been completed and the final review of the Endangered Species Study will be completed by the end of the year.

The company hopes to break ground in early 2007. Construction of the first phase is estimated to take three to six months before operations and services will be available.

YaSheng is seeking to establish commercial and logistics opportunities for both North American and Chinese companies seeking to expand business cooperation.

The company plans to market sections of the warehouse as a logistics/warehouse service to Chinese companies with distribution in the United States.

The 80-acre site in Victorville, Calif., was chosen for its strategic location with proximity to the Southern California Logistics Airport, its access from a high-speed container rail system and links to two ports in Los Angeles.

The 1 million square feet of warehouse space will be equipped with packaging, labeling, freight forwarding and real-time inventory management and administration services.

The YaSheng Group, a diversified industrial conglomerate incorporated in Redwood City, Calif., operates in high-tech agriculture, salt chemistry and biological technology.