Area Development
ICS Logistics, a provider of logistics, warehousing, and transportation services, will invest $50 million to construct a cold storage facility in Kingsbury, Indiana, according to the South Bend Tribune. The Florida-headquartered company will create 135 permanent jobs at the site with an average annual salary of $35,000 plus benefits, as well as up to 500 new trucking opportunities. ICS plans to build a 500,000-square-foot facility to store fruits, vegetables, and fish that will travel from from Central America to an ICS location in Florida by boat, then from there to Kingsbury by CSX Railroad. The food will be held over at the new facility and then loaded onto an average of 50 trucks per day for delivery to consumer markets. Trains emptied at Kingsbury will be loaded with products for shipment back to Florida. The Tribune reports that state and local incentives, along with financial assistance from CSX, equal more than $12 million. Local economic development officials tell the Tribune that there are still steps to be taken before the deal is completed, including additional tax increment financing at the site, but assuming all goes through, construction is scheduled to begin sometime next year, with operations beginning in 2011.