More expansion ahead for Railex Rotterdam company is planning new distribution centers
By ERIC ANDERSON BUSINESS EDITOR First published in print: Tuesday, March 30, 2010
ROTTERDAM -- Railex USA has doubled its work force and tripled the number of freight cars it handles here since it operated its first produce train from the West Coast in October 2006.
Now, the company is pursuing another wave of expansion, planning distribution centers in the Midwest and Southeast, as well as considering an expansion of its Rotterdam Industrial Park facility. "We'd make Florida a destination from the West Coast," said Paul Esposito, who has overseen the construction and operation of the Rotterdam facility. Eventually, produce from the Southeast could move north to the Rotterdam facility.
The company moves perishables between the two coasts aboard dedicated trains consisting of dozens of refrigerated boxcars that are monitored constantly by satellite.
Railex began in 2006 with one 55-car train a week, carrying vegetables and fruit from a warehouse in Wallula, Wash., to Rotterdam. Union Pacific and CSX jointly operated the train, which stopped only for crew changes and refueling.
Shippers are guaranteed five-day delivery times, although Esposito said each train typically makes the trip more quickly than that.
Two years ago, Railex added another warehouse, in central California, and now operates two trains a week from each of the two West Coast facilities.
When the new Golub Warehouses are built coupled with the expanded Railex the truck traffic between the industrial park and exit 25a will increase two fold but is that a bad thing. The truck plaza will also expand to handle the increase and the shops there will expand as well which will increase the sales tax paid and also the property/school taxes paid. This area is where the town has said it wants to expand the business base.
ROTTERDAM Railex wants to expand to accommodate growth BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter Reach Gazette reporter Justin Mason at 395-3113 or jmason@dailygazette.net.
Like the locomotives that power out of its Rotterdam warehouse twice a week, Railex never seems to stop moving forward. Despite a major recession along the way, the company has steadily grown since landing in the Rotterdam Industrial Park. The unique freight service that once hauled an average of 55 satellite-tracked, temperature-controlled box cars into the facility each week in 2006 has roughly tripled the size of its trains. Railex now employs about 240 workers, more than double the number it hired after building its warehouse. And before next year, company officials anticipate hiring another 40 employees in Rotterdam. The added work force could come in handy if Railex advances projects to build two new terminals in the Southeast and Midwest. Paul Esposito, the vice president of sales and logistics for Railex, said his company is actively looking for areas to expand, much like it did before building a $32 million cold storage facility in the fertile south-central region of California in 2009. “Right now, we’re in the researching phase,” he said Tuesday. “We’re using the same process that has worked for us so far.” Railex now runs two trains per week out of both Delano, Calif., and Wallula, Wash. These trains are merged in Wyoming to form a 150-car behemoth, which completes the trip east to the hub of operations in New York. In total, the trains usually make the trip in under five days. Once unloaded in Rotterdam, the cars are at least partially refilled with items to be shipped back west, including everything from bait fi sh to bottles of East Coast wines to beer. Esposito said new terminals are being sought out in areas such as southern Georgia and northern Florida. He said the company is also considering building a terminus near major Midwestern cities, such as Chicago or St. Louis. “We’ve done our analysis and we know there is a demand in both areas,” he said. The robust business and future expansion plans also means Railex may be interested in expanding in Rotterdam. The company’s agreement with the Galesi Group, the industrial park’s owner, provides for an additional 220,000 square feet of expansion onto its existing 250,000-square-foot warehouse. “We laid out the building so that it could be expandable,” said David Buicko, Galesi’s chief operating officer. Esposito said plans for expansion in Rotterdam could be forthcoming.............>>>>..........>>>>...........http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r00502&AppName=1
ROTTERDAM Railex may be ready to move forward with expansion plan BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter
Railex could soon decide whether to move forward with plans to significantly expand its Rotterdam facility, according to a proposal before the town’s Planning Commission. The unique freight service is asking the town for a site plan waiver that would allow it to begin building a 65,000-square-foot addition onto its existing warehouse. The addition would increase the total square footage at the Rotterdam facility by roughly 22 percent. Paul Esposito, vice president of sales and logistics for Railex, declined to discuss the expansion in much detail Monday. He said the proposal has been in the works for some time and would add 19 cargo bays to the existing 220,000-squarefoot facility in the Rotterdam Industrial Park. “It has to do with our business growth opportunities,” he said. Members of the Planning Commission are expected to approve a waiver of site plan review during their meeting today. The waiver would allow Railex to begin the next phase of a project approved in 2005. Ray Gillen, chairman of Schenectady County’s Metroplex Development Authority, said the company is seeking all the necessary approvals so the expansion plan can be pitched to its corporate executives. He said the company still hasn’t signed off on the project. “They want to basically have a shovel-ready project,” he said. In addition to approval by the town, Railex is also seeking a modification of its 10-year agreement with the Rotterdam Industrial Development Agency. Gillen said the company is seeking a sales tax exemption for building materials. Under the existing agreement, the company pays about $291,434 in combined local taxes. Railex is reimbursed for that payment by the state as a lingering benefit from the former Empire Zone program. The program was aimed at rewarding companies that meet certain growth and employment targets. In the case of Railex, Gillen said the company has far exceeded any of the benchmarks that were initially established ...................>>>>...............................>>>>...................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r01000&AppName=1
When the new Golub Warehouses are built coupled with the expanded Railex the truck traffic between the industrial park and exit 25a will increase two fold but is that a bad thing. The truck plaza will also expand to handle the increase and the shops there will expand as well which will increase the sales tax paid and also the property/school taxes paid. This area is where the town has said it wants to expand the business base.
just wait till 2012 when exit 25a is closed due to bridge work on the thruway
rotterdam will be a parking lot - we have the best minds at the state working on this
perfect timing
Talking to each other is better than talking about each other
Great news for Rotterdam and all of Schenectady County .... WORKING TOGETHER WORKS
George Amedore & Christian Klueg for NYS Senate 2016 Pete Vroman for State Assembly 2016[/size][/color]
"For this is what America is all about. It is the uncrossed desert and the unclimbed ridge. It is the star that is not reached and the harvest that is sleeping in the unplowed ground." Lyndon Baines Johnson
everyone can have jobs at mcdonalds and Railex......7 -12 bucks an hour !!! keeping letting Rotterdam run down like it is and thats all you will have here !!!!!!!!
What's the matter Bi-agg'? The regime isn't giving you enough to back them tooth and nail to the hilt like you always do? You have to learn to toe their line better and not ask questions like that which may be difficult for the apparatchiks to answer. Besides, you liberal big-spenders and taxers have made it impossible for new enterprise to come here and establish new enterprise without huge taxpayer subsidies. It is all over.
"While Foreign Terrorists were plotting to murder and maim using homemade bombs in Boston, Democrap officials in Washington DC, Albany and here were busy watching ME and other law abiding American Citizens who are gun owners and taxpayers, in an effort to blame the nation's lack of security on US so that they could have a political scapegoat."
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