OCR Text |
Show x- - '' A v ?. '& v . ,t Vf Lakeside Review, Wednesday, April 6, 1988 7A Freeport activities changing, says manager IMARGE SILVESTER ris Kolmer bought the empty government warehouse buildings CLEARFIELD The distribin 1963 for $5.5 million. ution industry hasnt totally died Ross was employed by Redman out, but it has changed colors a Warehouse Corp. in 1963 when said George Ross, general its president, Dilworth Woolly, , :bit, manager of Freeport West. heard that five or six million . As the national business climate square feet of warehouse space . changed over the years, Freeport was going to be dumped on the ' also changed, until today manu-- ; market. The total amount of warefactoring jobs are replacing ware-- housing and distribution jobs to a house space in Salt Lake City was great degree. approximately 100,000 square Ross gave local businessmen an feet. Dumping that much space t overview of the evolution of the on the market was a major condistribution industry at Freeport cern, because it would have killed at a recent Clearfield Chamber of any warehousing business for Commerce meeting, both Salt Lake and Ogden, Ross i He said distribution in Utah said. ;has gone through a revolution Woolly decided the best thing ' since Kern Schumacher and Mor to do was to buy it and try to; Review correspondent , ket. They had other business interests in Utah. However, when the government declared eight more buildings surplus at the west end of Freeport Center, Schumacher and Kolmer, the original owners of the Freeport Center, decided to submit a bid. In 1981 they learned they were successful in purchasing the buildings, and Freeport West came into being. We lease warehouse space, large and small, Ross said. The smallest user leases 4,800 square feet, with the largest leasing square feet. So now were doing what we used to do in the 1960s and 70s. Ross said that when Schumacher and Kolmer first purchased the find a use for it. He formed a syndicate of investors and hired the University of Utah to find a use for the buildings. It was decided that west coast distribution would be ideal, and the university valued the property at $2.7 million. Woolly submitted a bid for that amount only to learn that another bid for $5.5 million had been submitted. Prior to Schumachers purchase the property was leased by Corp. in 1957 from the government. Schumacher and Kolmer purchased the buildings empty in 1963. By 1971, with all buildings occupied, the property was sold to the ownership of Freeport Center Associates, and left the mar Wes-tinghou- se , - buildings in 1963, they ap- proached the Union Pacific Railroad for ideas for use of the buildings. It was the railroad company who came up with the idea of storage in transit that would allow a business to ship a partial load of freight at full carload rates, as well as route traffic through Utah. There was only one way to handle distribution to the West Coast, said Ross. If you manufactured goods in the East and Midwest, and were going to serve markets all the way through, say from Seattle to San Diego, and didnt come through Clearfield, you spent too much money. And that was true. The buildings filled up and employment was high. The principals I worked for made a lot of money and everybody was hap- py. Ross said several things happened and things got out of balance, which caused a decline in business. Deregulation took place, and the railroad began raising the rates. At the same time the truck- ing industry lowered their rates. A trip to Omaha to meet with the railroad officers did little to ease concerns of the Freeport personnel. I remember their exact words, Ross said. We met with the president and vice president and we asked what was going on. They said, Well, we want to try to continue to promote Gear-fielWere gong to exercise dom in transitory pricing. What that meant, said Ross, Was that the rates were going to go even higher. And they did. Pretty soon the number of rail cars that went through Clearfield diminished and were being replaced by trucks. Ross said there were 300 railroad cars coming through Clearfield in 1972, with very few coming through today. As rail traffic disappeared, distribution jobs left also. Ross cited interest rates during 1979-8- 1 as another contributing factor to the decrease in rail traffic. He said companies continued to cut back on inventory, in part because of a decrease due to the d. recession. DEL MONTE CUT CORN CHUNK LIGHT TUNA YOUR CHOICE OR OIL OR WATER PACK WHOLE KERNEL CAN 6'a-0- JSI CJP1KLE: cut potatoes & -I 2-UT- COKE ER FRENCH FRIES CHERRY COKE DIET CHERRY COKE TAB DIET COKE SPRITE DIET SPRITE CAFFEINE FREE COKE DIET CAFFEINE FREE COKE OR HASH BROWNS BASIC GOODNESS V-- 8 APPLE JUICE JUICE VEGETABLE IS SITTER CITY IN SALT LAKE VALLEY PRICCS EFFECTIVE OREM SPANISH FORK PRICE CASTLE LAYTON DALE BRIGHAM EVANSTON NEPHt Soon companies like J.C. Penney and Whirpool, decided to serve the entire country from one central point at the manufacturing site and still successfully handle their business. The word spread, and pretty soon everybody got on the bandwagon, just like they did when they came in. When they left, they got on the same bandwagon and found they could do business with a lot less inventory. The advent of computers further hastened the demise of the business. As corporations controlled the inventory better, with the use of the computers, inventories were cut even further. Ross said that as industries went to other places distribution jobs have been slowly replaced with manufacturing jobs, which are more stable. However, with low cost space, Ross said Gear-fiel- d is the hub of the intermountain wheel to surrounding states and does handle their distribution. Ross said in June, 1981, there was 960,000 square feet of empty space in eight buildings at Freeport West. The buildings are not 96 percent occupied. We tried to find a niche in the market that didnt exist before. We found that by catering to small businesses, we are overcoming the image of buildings for large users, he said. We divided the buildings, with some having 5,000 square feet to 30,000 square feet. Our pricing structure puts rents below comparable storaged, and fills our needs. We feel pretty good about it. Because new businesses wernt coming into the state, the company sought expanding local firms, PORK N BEANS MUSHROOMS STEMS PIECES GREEN GIANT M & M PEANUTS BEST FOODS & 0BSERAL mis csrims or suppliers to larger companies who wanted supplies in Utah. Ross said Utah has the highest educated work force in the country, a fact that he hopes will attract new businesses and higher wages to the state. Then we would have more stable jobs than the beautiful days we thought we had in the 1960s and 70s. With the mining industry coming back, and prices firming, he said, I think our worst days are over. 'Outstanding' worker honored Officials at HILL AFB Hills 1881st Communications Squadron recently recognized their outstanding civilians of 1987. Perle Hays, Layton, is the wage grade winner. As an electronics communications and cryptographic equipment systems re- RITZ CRACKERS NABISCO REGULAR OR LOW SALT 16 SANDWICH COOKIES $99 20 19 ti or mo. JJ T 4 U m 16 02 02 M0. KIX 13 MO. T '"I. it - m m TT,T?WTTn3'TWiTD $$08 1102 M0. 02 MO. 12 oz m. pairman, he performs preventive and corrective maintenance on various types of equipment. He also works on equipment at Proving Grounds and $29 Dug-wa- y Wen-dov- er Airfield. He developed a CIRCUS FUN BREAKFAST CEREAL BREAKFAST CEREAL CHOOSE FIG OR OTHER ASSORTED FRUITS WIIEATIES BREAKFAST CEREAL BREAKFAST FAVORITE NEWTON COOKIES CHIPS AHOY H 02 MO. 16 01 M9. OR CHEWY CHIPS AHOY COOKIES CHEERIOS OREOS or DOUBLE STUF one-of-a-ki- test board which improved the preventive maintenance inspection process by eliminating re- dundant removal and replacement of test leads and reducing PMI times by 25 percent. Hays has been with the 1881st for just over one year, but has already established himself as an outstanding worker who does nothing halfway. |