Description:

EUPRPDC seeks to have a professional firm devise a strategy that accomplishes two goals: discerns the feasibility of the EUP as a (micro) multi-modal transportation hub; and outlines a protocol for attracting logistics firms to the region. Part 1 of the strategy, feasibility, will analyze the region's existing transportation and industrial infrastructure as well as current market conditions (elaborated on in the project scope) to determine whether or not there is demand for a micro multi-modal transportation hub in the EUP.

Part 2 of the strategy, attraction, — to be fulfilled regardless of the findings in Part 1 — will identify firms in logistics and related industries that are appropriate targets for the region; devise a plan for pitching the region; and require the contractor (or sub-contractor) (essentially acting as an agent) to collaborate with local economic development organizations, which will culminate in meeting with firms and pitching to them the EUP as a location for their enterprise(s).

Purpose:

The EUP is home to a mix of multi-modal and industrial infrastructural assets that have potential for increased usage. The EUP has industrial parks in Kincheloe, Sault Ste. Marie (has a Foreign Trade Zone designation), DeTour, Cedarville, and Newberry; an international airport — formerly an U.S. Air Force base — in Kincheloe (same location as the industrial park) with a 12,000-by-300 ft. runway (currently operating at 7201-by-150 ft.) servicing 2 commercial flights per day; the municipal airport, Sanderson Field, in Sault Ste. Marie; rail that connects to Ontario, and runs through the region towards Wisconsin and Minnesota; I-75, which runs north and south through the region, connecting to Ontario via the International Bridge and the Lower Peninsula via the Mackinac Bridge; US-2 and M-28, both running west from I-75; a publicly-owned commercial dock in Sault Ste. Marie; a privately-owned and defunct coal dock in Sault Ste. Marie; the deep-water Port of Algoma (Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario); and the Soo Locks. With the international border, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol is stationed in Sault Ste. Marie. Local stakeholders believe that the availability of industrial space, combined with the variety of transportation modes its infrastructure has the capacity to support, has the potential entice logistics firms to the region with the intention of diversifying the local economy by maximizing existing assets.

Please view the request for proposals in its entirety by clicking on this hyperlink.