UIPA approves Utah's first rural inland port on 899 Iron Co. acres

Brice Wallace 

Looking to emphasize the “Utah” part of its name, the Utah Inland Port Authority has approved the creation of a first-ever inland port in a rural part of the state.

During a meeting in Kanarraville, the UIPA board OK’d plans for the Iron Springs Inland Port on 899 acres of undeveloped land in Cedar City. It includes 825 acres owned by Commerce Crossroads Logistics Park and 74 acres owned by Savage Railport-Southern Utah.

When fully developed, the industrial park and transportation hub are expected to help companies move goods in and out of the area, create high-paying jobs and generally boost economic opportunities throughout Southern Utah.

“Primarily, so far our efforts have been focused up in Salt Lake City, and now we have a chance to spread out and to be able to work here in Cedar City,” said Ben Hart, UIPA’s executive director. “We’re ecstatic for that. … We feel like today is a momentous day, one that will be looked back upon for generations to come as a catalyst that really helped to fuel economic growth in this part of the state for, again, generations to come.”

The hub is a collaboration among UIPA, steel producer BZI and Commerce Crossroads, one of BZI’s affiliated companies. The site will become BZI’s new headquarters, with groundbreaking scheduled in 2024. The Commerce Crossroads industrial park will start with office buildings, on-site products and services to construct tailored processing facilities for customers, and it will operate a new rail transload service, RailSync, as well as an expanded short-line service to individual facilities. In the long term, the area is expected to include technology, construction material manufacturing, data centers, e-commerce and distribution, office space and housing.

Commerce Crossroads will announce additional details about its development plans, facilities and services in the coming months.

The resolution approving the new port was unanimously adopted.

“That’s probably the most important vote, other than forming the [Utah] inland port, that this board has ever taken,” said Jerry Stevenson, a UIPA board member and state senator. “This is the beginning of a lot of really great things for the state of Utah and the economy of the state, and it’s really a great thing for Iron County and the surrounding areas.”

The port property lies generally between Union Pacific’s Cedar City branch and Iron Springs Road, from about 1400 North to 2400 North.

The project plan indicates the site will provide railroad access to local and regional companies currently not able to access to rail. The nearest current transloading facility to Iron County is a bulk transloading facility in Salt Lake City. The nearest facility servicing containers is in San Bernardino County, California.

Incentives — in the form of post-performance rebates on generated property tax differential — will be used to attract companies to the area. The plan says the incentives will favor low-water-use industries, such as light industrial, manufacturing, distribution, agricultural technology and equipment, plastics, and lumber processing.

Hart noted that UIPA at one time had “very much an external focus” as it worked to create national and global partnerships. But the past six months have featured a focus on Utah counties and communities. The authority now is working with representatives of several other communities throughout the state and he expects several more project area proposals will be brought before the board for consideration over the next six to nine months.

“We’re excited for the opportunity that we have now to recognize this [Iron Springs project] is a really important mile marker in terms of the development of the Utah Inland Port Authority, and our ability to onboard a project area is very important for us as we seek to really, really amplify our mission, which is to empower communities all throughout the state through logistics and project areas,” he said.

Several other speakers hailed the potential for the new port to help with Southern Utah’s economy.

Board chairman Miles Hansen said the authority’s work is “all with an eye of giving companies in Utah a competitive advantage because of the efficiency and our ability to get goods in and out of this cargoshed more efficiently than other states in other parts of the country and in other parts of the world.”

Scott Wolford, UIPA’s vice president of business development, said the Iron Springs port “will be a major logistical boon to not just Iron County but to the region.”

Phillip Hoskins, vice president of business development at Savage Services, said the company’s rail port near Cedar City is on track to be completed in the next 12 months.

“As part of the Iron Springs project area, the rail port will improve access to rail and aid in connecting critical supply chains that move agricultural products, construction materials and other essential commodities,” Hoskins said.

“The creation of the Iron Springs Inland Port today opens new doors of opportunity, not just for Cedar City and Iron County but throughout all of southwest Utah,” said Danny Stewart, economic development director for Iron County and Cedar City.

Stewart said the benefits include BZI being able to bring steel to Cedar City via rail and Litehouse Foods in Hurricane being able to unload food-grade oil in Cedar City, which is much closer than its current unloading locations. Local hay growers will be able to ship their product overseas, he added.

“Rail transloading brings many options to businesses to succeed in Southern Utah,” Stewart said.

Hart said few port authorities across the U.S. are designed to help an entire state, which gives Utah an economic advantage.

“This is absolutely going to put us at the head of the conversation when it comes to global trade in the next 20, 30, 40 years,” he said. “We’re moving forward at a rate that I think will put us ultimately ahead of every other state in the country when it comes to logistics. But that all starts today with projects like what we’re seeing here in Iron County.

“This is the beginning. This is not the end. This is the beginning of an effort that will create facilities — logistics facilities, intermodal, whatever they may look like — facilities all across the state of Utah as we work with communities that I am convinced will generate economic growth and returns for generations to come.”