Aerostar to build $7M complex for FedEx at LMM airport
Aerostar Airport Holdings, operator of San Juan’s Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport, is breaking ground on a new $7 million warehouse and office building complex that will become the hub for Federal Express in Puerto Rico, this media outlet has learned.
The 70,000 square-foot Federal Express Cargo Building is expected to be ready for occupancy in late 2018, according to the Request for Proposal Aerostar put out in August of this year. Although Aerostar will own the building, it has been designed in detail with FedEx, Nelman Nevárez, Aerostar’s operations manager confirmed.
The complex is broken down into some 8,400 square feet of space for vehicle and aircraft maintenance support, approximately 15,400 square feet of finished office spaces for administrative and customer service support, some 22,000 square feet of open warehouse to accommodate freight handling activities, and nearly 23,000 square feet for a caster deck area, the RFP outlined.
The warehouse and office building will be surrounded by an additional 161,000 square feet for about 150 parking spaces, and close to 239,000 square feet of ramp area for cargo planes and trucks, according to the project blueprints obtained by this media outlet.
The new facility will be constructed on a site formerly occupied by a multi-tenant building on the airport’s property that is being demolished, and which contained traces of lead and asbestos that are being cleaned out.
The FedEx warehouse project was recently awarded to Desarrollos Metropolitanos, which sub-contracted Structural Steel Works Inc., a Bayamón-based company that will handle the prefabricated building component, which entails completing every aspect of the [steel] structure — the beams, roof supports, wall panels, doorway/window openings, etc. — before the facility is raised.
This construction method expedites the project timeline and ensures the building is built to exact specifications beforehand, the company confirmed. SSW will work with Whirlwind Steel to get the work done “as effectively as possible,” company executives said.
“There’s no question that we’re living through difficult times, but the worst thing we can do is stand still. Not only do projects like these provide work to local contractors and fabricators, thereby stimulating our internal economy, but they also serve to remind us that we are ripe with potential,” said Juan C. Aguayo, president of SSW Engineering & Construction, LLC.
The project is expected to generate hundreds of direct and indirect jobs, this media outlet confirmed.
“These days, when bad news seems to surround the island, these projects are a sign both to us and the rest of the world that Puerto Rico will keep moving forward, and that we haven’t been swept away by the storm,” he added.
The new FedEx complex will be developed in three phases, with construction slated to begin sometime during the first quarter of next year.
