Tradepoint Atlantic has embarked on one of the most ambitious industrial transformations in the U.S. as it converts 3,300-acres of a former steel mill into a logistics cluster. And the key to making it all work is the versatility of the site.

Tradepoint Atlantic in Baltimore is one the most remarkable port projects in the United States. And it only takes a quick look at Tradepoint Atlantic’s map of recent developments to illustrate the point.

In July of 2019, Orsted U.S Offshore, the U.S. arm of the Danish wind power developer, agreed to build a staging area for the development of Orsted’s Skipjack Wind Farm located 19.5 miles off the Maryland Coast. On the map of Tradepoint Atlantic’s site is a little rectangular slice with Orsted’s name – but Orsted’s little sliver on the map is a whopping 45 acres in size – it is just simply lost in the amazing 3,300 acres that TPA is developing.

Coming to terms with the scale of the Tradepoint Atlantic endeavor illuminates both the promise and challenge of the former Bethlehem Steel site. On one hand having 3,300 acres of waterfront property in the Port of Baltimore - or for that matter any East Coast port – is astounding good fortune, but the challenge is balancing that good fortune against the socio-economic factors that go into building a sustainable logistics enterprise.

And at its heart TPA is a highly diverse and versatile logistics hub. For example, near the Orsted location there are piers and bulkheads being refurbished. Kerry Doyle, a Managing Director who co-heads the real estate development [along with co-MD Marc Salotti] in an interview with the AJOT said, “Infrastructure speaks to the versatility long-term… And that infrastructure, that upgrade [includes] the 2200 linear feet of bulkhead, as well as the 30-acre apron adjacent to that bulkhead and it is wrapping up in the next 30 days. [When] completely finished that’ll allow us to do a whole host of things. One, we’ll be able to drop a stern ramp anywhere along that 2,200 linear feet to offload auto carriers.”

Land and Sea

The importance of the ability to handle ro-ro and breakbulk ships is essential to the clients investing in the facility. For Orsted the access to the bulkhead allows them to have ample space for handling nacelles and oversized turbine components for their wind power projects both offshore and onshore. And for a client like Volkswagen, which has a 115-acre processing facility, the access for ro-ro ships is critical.

As Kerry noted, “We’re nearing completion on the 115-acre Volkswagen import and processing facility where they’ll be doing … their fit and finish manufacturing and importing upwards of 150,000 automobiles on an annual basis. And they’re going to call this sort of their East Coast hub… which makes a lot of sense and makes it one of the reasons why they’re willing to do that. Because operationally, it makes more sense cost-wise given their network and having the rail that hits more inland destinations with these cars from the East Coast.”

Kerry is expecting the first imports of vehicles to begin around the end of June or early July. Interestingly another 75-acres lies unoccupied next to the Volkswagen site and begs the question whether the German automaker might expand. “And we’re actively working on trying to get somebody else or them [Volkswagen] to expand,” Kerry said of the adjacent site.

Tradepoint’s short rail system, Tradepoint Rail (TPR), with 70-miles of track winding through the TPA, connects with Class rail providers CSX and Norfolk Southern. While the rail is an obvious attraction for clients like Volkswagen moving vehicles or Orsted moving oversized wind turbine parts to onshore wind farm sites, it is of equal importance to companies like Amazon, Under Armour, Home Depot, Atlantic Forest Products and Fedex – giving these companies a significant alternative to trucking and valuable reach into the hinterland.

TPA and Breakbulk

Part of the versatility of the TPA is, in this era of containerized cargo, it has the ability to handle bulk and breakbulk. Besides Orsted, the site has a number of other clients who move bulk and breakbulk. For example, Home Depot and Atlantic Forest Products move lumber. Access World, a subsidiary of the international commodity firm Glencore, handles aluminum, steel and sacks of rubber and has a 740,000 sq./ft warehouse to protect the products from the elements. There is also Cap Rock and Perdue, which both import organic grain to their onsite warehouses to be distributed through their East Coast networks to various farms as feed material or to crush plants to produce vegetable oil.

But TPA feels there is room to grow the bulk businesses.

As Kerry noted, “I’d say one of our primary initiatives as we move forward is we feel like we’ve made a fair amount of headway in putting the infrastructure in place for offshore wind, break bulk, roll on-roll off cargo. We really need to optimize our ability to handle bulk material. And it’s going to be focused on the finger pier and conveying systems and storage systems to efficiently move bulk commodities through our site.”

Of course, the entire TPA enterprise has been pushing forward in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis which has put tremendous stress on logistics services around the world. But the TPA’s been able to continue to move forward developing the site despite the pandemic.

Marc Salotti, Co-MD of TPA, explained, “We’ve actually been very fortunate, particularly with our partners in Baltimore County and state of Maryland here. We’ve had a lot of success continuing to drive projects forward throughout all of this uncertainty whereas some of our neighboring jurisdictions haven’t been quite as fortunate. We’re finding that contractors are excited to keep going and keep working so we’ve been able to actually accelerate on a couple of fronts, particularly as it pertains to preparing land for the next set of distribution centers and warehouses that are coming through.”

The TPA’s already become a major job-producer and an economic engine for the area. According to Aaron Tomarchio, Senior VP of Corporate Affairs for the TPA, the facility “right now, has about 8,000 permanent jobs … and we’re closing in on the 10,000 jobs that were projected to be on the site. And we think we may at some point exceed that.”

And to support the 10,000 plus onsite community there are plans afoot for green space, restaurants, hotels, daycare and other amenities – a city within a city – a versatile plan for logistics enterprise based on versatility.