DHL Global Forwarding breaks ground on facility

DHL Global Forwarding, the air and ocean freight specialist within Deutsche Post DHL, celebrated the groundbreaking of a new $35 million facility in Chicago IL. The facility at Chicago O’Hare International Airport includes 53,000 square feet of office space and 423,030 square feet of warehousing to accommodate working space for Global Forwarding’s more than 500 employees. It will be the largest DHL Global Forwarding building in the United States.
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said, “O’Hare is one of our city’s key economic engines, and with this strong commitment by DHL Global Forwarding we will vastly increase O’Hare’s cargo operation capabilities and will continue to move Chicago forward as a global transportation leader. This is just one of several recent private commercial investments that are generating opportunities for the people of Chicago.”
This location will be a bonded Container Freight Station (CFS), designated by carriers to receive cargo to be loaded into containers. It will also be a Foreign Trade Zone (FTZ), a secure area under supervision of US Customs and Border Protection that is considered outside the Customs territory of the United States for the purpose of duty payment.
Expected to be Technology Asset Protection Association (TAPA-A) certified, the location will be internationally recognized as a leader in the fight against cargo theft. DHL Global Forwarding will also establish the facility as a Life Science Cold Chain Certified Competency Center for shipping pharmaceutical, biotechm, and medical devices that need to be in a temperature-controlled environment. The Competency Center will support the company’s THERMONET system for temperature-controlled heavy air freight transportation that provides enhanced monitoring and visibility of life science and healthcare products. It will also include two 10,000 square foot Good Distribution Practices (GDP)-compliant cold chambers.
This build-to-suit facility will be funded and developed by Aeroterm on a 24-acre parcel of land Aeroterm controls on the airport. The building is also slated to be LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design)-certified, a third-party verification of green buildings. This certification is in line with the company’s GoGreen climate protection program, aimed at improving CO2 efficiency across all of its operations, including subcontracted transportation services, by 30% by 2020.
The Chicago building is expected to be completed by November 2014. Until then, all services will continue to be rendered from DHL Global Forwarding’s current location in Franklin Park.