FedEx Ground eyes Lewiston site

FedEx Ground plans to locate a package distribution center at the Harry Wall Industrial Park in Lewiston near EKO and the Nez Perce County Jail.

The company confirmed Tuesday that it hopes to occupy a 37,000-square-foot building that will be finished in the summer of 2013. The site is near the intersection of Down River Road and the Old Spiral Highway. The land is zoned as “port,” a designation that allows FedEx Ground’s proposed use.

Since at least the spring, the Port of Lewiston has been negotiating a deal to sell land for the project. But port commissioners and staff have declined to answer questions about who the tenant would be.

Commissioners are scheduled to vote today to decide if they will sell seven acres for $730,838 to West Moreland Company, a site selection firm based in Atlanta.

The vote will take place during a 10:30 a.m. meeting at the port office, 1626 Sixth Ave. North, in Lewiston.

Once the new center is ready, FedEx Ground will close its Clarkston location, wrote David Westrick, a spokesman for

FedEx Ground in an email.

“The new facility will be larger than an existing station in Clarkston, Wash., allowing us to continue to meet and exceed customer demands in the region,” Westrick wrote. “When the facility opens, positions will transfer from the existing station, and we will add to the workforce as necessary.”

Westrick didn’t answer a question about how many employees will work in Lewiston. Previously the port had indicated the number was less than 25.

FedEx Ground based its site choice on the land’s proximity to major highways, customers’ distribution centers and potential employees, Westrick wrote.

The Lewiston project is part of a nationwide expansion that has included relocating more than 500 facilities and adding 11 new hubs. The upgrades have boosted package volume capacity and accelerated ground service delivery by one day or more in more than half the United States, Westrick wrote.

FedEx Ground now has 18,000 square feet in a building at 908 Port Drive in the Port of Clarkston that has housed its operations for five years, Brad Styner, owner of the building, wrote in an email. The remainder of the 54,000-square-foot building houses Grassland West.

New tenants, perhaps a boat builder or retailer, are being sought, Styner wrote.

“FedEx has outgrown (its) existing space,” he wrote.

Williams may be contacted at

[email protected] or (208) 848-2261.

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