If you want fries with that, you have several downtown dining options.But fast food – which is sold on dozens of street corners around town – isn’t enough to draw people to the city’s core.A $25 million project will put a FedEx state-of-the-art regional distribution center in New Haven.
The international shipping company is asking Allen County officials for a tax break on the project. Savings could total $1.5 million during a five-year period.
The vacant 40 acres at 11039 Lincoln Highway East is owned by Setzer Properties ZFWY LLC.
Setzer has agreed to invest about $12.5 million to construct a 178,000-square-foot warehouse/distribution center.
FedEx Ground Package System Inc., which has a long-term lease on the facility, plans to invest $12.5 million in new mechanical and electrical equipment.
FedEx plans to create 87 part-time jobs at the new distribution center. The most common position, package handler, will pay $11.31 an hour, according to a tax abatement filing. Plans call for 82 of those jobs.
The shipping giant already employs 34 full-time, four temporary and 69 part-time workers in New Haven. They will be moved into the new building when it is completed in September 2014. Construction is scheduled to begin May 1.
For more on this story, see Saturday's print edition of The Journal Gazette or visit www.journalgazette.net after 3 a.m. Saturday.
