FedEx helps Henderson deliver on industrial goal

The city of Henderson on Thursday took its first step toward developing its planned industrial district, the South 15 Industrial Center.

The first project toward that end began, at least symbolically, with a ground breaking to celebrate FedEx Ground’s construction of a new 296,000 square-foot distribution facility on Brunner Avenue and Executive Airport Drive.

The building will replace FedEx’s current 130,000-square-foot space at 551 Courier St., which it has inhabited since 2005. The $50 million new center is scheduled to open in September 2014, bringing all 190 FedEx Ground employees with it. By December 2014, the company expects to hire up to 290 people to help with the holiday rush, Michael Vickers, the district managing director for FedEx Ground, said.

“It takes a tremendous team effort to put a facility of this size together,” Vickers said.

Henderson Mayor Andy Hafen spoke at the event and told the 30 or so attendees they should take a moment to reflect that a national corporate brand is expanding in the city, which signifies the economy is coming back.

Bob Cooper, economic development manager for the city of Henderson, said, “This is one of my highlights of the year.”

The FedEx distribution center is being developed by SunCap Property Group down the street from the 1 million-square-foot Levi Strauss distribution center off Executive Airport Drive.

“This is just going to be a premium place,” Hafen said of the planned industrial park.

The FedEx building will be constructed within a 150-acre piece of land, much of which is still for sale. Down the street, a 350-acre stretch is also slated for the planned industrial center.

As the first to officially sign on for the project, Vickers said FedEx Ground is ready to move out of its current facility.

“We’ve just outgrown it,” he said.

Since 2003, the company has accelerated service by at least one day to more than 70 percent of the U.S., and the volume of packages it handles every business day has doubled in the past 10 years.

It operates a network of more than 500 distribution hubs and local pickup-and-delivery stations, and employs about 59,000 people. Its operations are supported by about 9,000 independent businesses that pick up, deliver and transport more than 5.6 million packages daily throughout the U.S. and Canada. The company reported annual revenue of $9.5 billion in fiscal year 2012.

Contact reporter Laura Carroll at lcarroll@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4588. Follow @lscvegas on Twitter.