DHL Global Forwarding completes Chicago facility

DHL Global Forwarding, the air and ocean freight specialist within Deutsche Post DHL, held a ribbon-cutting ceremony in celebration of the completion of its new $35 million facility in Chicago IL recently.
The three-story building has 491,000 square feet of office and warehouse space, making it the largest free-standing DHL Global Forwarding building in its worldwide network. It is located in the Chicago O’Hare International Airport’s cargo zone and is DHL Global Forwarding’s largest air export gateway.
“This new DHL Global Forwarding building is a testament to Chicago’s burgeoning growth, and can offer local businesses of all sizes a gateway to trade expansion within the United States and abroad,” said Mayor Rahm Emanuel. “The City of Chicago is proud to partner with businesses like DHL that want to invest in our community by adding new jobs, promoting commerce, and further positioning the city as a leading cargo hub.”
The building took one year to build and will house 500 employees. It is a bonded Container Freight Station (CFS), a location designated by carriers to receive cargo to be loaded into containers. A portion of the building has been designated a Foreign Trade Zone (FTZ), a secure area under the supervision of US Customs and Border Protection considered outside the Customs territory of the United States for the purpose of duty-payment. The facility is Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) validated, TSA Certified Cargo Screening Facilities (TSA CCSF) certified, and is expected to be Transported Asset Protection Association Americas (TAPA-A) certified in the second quarter of 2015.
This building contains two temperature-controlled chambers (+15° to +25° C and +2° to +8° C) that together measure close to 10,000 square feet and a 999-sq-ft ambient receiving area, built with variable temperature capabilities to process any pharmaceutical, biotech, or medical devices that require a temperature-controlled environment, as well as two dedicated truck docks.
The facility is also established as a Certified Life Sciences Station to support DHL’s Thermonet solution for temperature-controlled air freight transportation. It is one of eight Certified Life Sciences Stations in the United States completed thus far, with specific storage capabilities dedicated for life science and healthcare goods.
The building is currently in the process of obtaining Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification, a third-party verification for green buildings.
Go to www.dhl.com for further details.