No more than $15,000 will be spent on the project, with money coming from $75,000 in Montgomery County development funds granted in 2012, Stanley said. The money was granted to a group of Montgomery and Miami County communities seeking to bring logistics firms here.
The idea is to be build on several big projects in distribution and logistics the Dayton area has seen in recent years. Companies like Caterpillar Logistics, Payless Shoe Source and others have made the region home. A $90 million center being built by developer Prologis will bring more than 1,000 jobs to Union after it opens this year. (A tenant for that site hasn’t been officially announced.)
The web site will have several purposes, chief among them publicizing a report the TID commissioned last year by York Pa.-based supply-chain consultant St. Onge. The study explored the Dayton region’s strengths in attracting distribution companies.
Regional advocates have long pointed to Dayton’s location, boasting a “90-minute air market” reaching over 137 million people. Most major East Coast ocean and land ports are within 11 to 12 hours drive time of Dayton, the St. Onge report said. As well, the area has advantages in labor and costs of business, advocates have said.
“We want to make sure that information is available nationally,” said Erik Collins, Montgomery County development director.
Paul Spohn, St. Onge business development director, said government coalitions using similar web sites promoting their regions have had success, including the Gateway Commerce Center in St. Louis and Centerpoint Intermodal in Will County, Illinois.
Regions promoted by these kinds of web sites are attracting new business, Spohn said. “Now they’re filling up very quickly,” he said.
As examples, he pointed to www.gatewaydelivers.com for the Gateway Commerce Center in St. Louis, Mo. and www.centerpoint-prop.com for train-to-truck terminals in Oakbrook, Ill.
“They’re promoting it,” Spohn said. “They’re doing exactly what we told them to do.”
Collins said the site will also be a database for logistics workers looking for openings and companies searching for workers. Stanley said the site will work with the Montgomery County Job Center and the state of Ohio on that aspect.
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