Feb. 6--Plans to develop a regional air cargo center at Erie International Airport might still be a concept on a drawing board, but the vision for it is growing.
Three Erie companies have announced they together hope to broaden the scope of the International Trade Center project.
Their idea is to develop the trade center and the airport as a multi-modal worldwide logistics facility --a place where companies could coordinate, direct and handle cargo shipments whether by air, truck, train or even ship.
Veteran trucking and warehouse operator Joseph Benacci of TWL Corp. and Bill Patterson of Patterson-Erie Corp. have joined Harry Staszewski of Erie Aviation Inc. to develop what they are calling the Erie International Logistics Center.
The partners said the idea is to build on the international trade center concept and make it bigger and better by having local and international companies get involved and add their capabilities to the project.
"Many of the (freight) forwarders and expeditors we work with on a daily basis have been waiting for Erie to fully develop its air cargo capabilities,"Benacci said in a prepared statement issued by the partners.
"When you consider the fact that we have deep-water port access, direct rail access and immediate access to interstate roadways, all in a single site here in Erie, you start to develop a significant argument for Erie's potential in this growing, global industry," Benacci said.
Staszewski's company, Erie Aviation, is an airport-based aircraft parts and repair facility. It has been working with the Erie Municipal Airport Authority to develop an international trade center to boost the airport's air cargo capacity.
Erie Aviation and the airport board also see the trade center as a step that could one day lead to direct cargo flights to and from the Cottbus-Drewitz Airport in eastern Germany.
Erie Aviation's subsidiary, Erie-Drewitz International, hopes to take over operations of that German airport sometime this spring.
Staszewski said a goal is to create new industries and jobs in Erie and Germany -- to recruit new companies to Erie and stem the loss of some traditional manufacturing jobs.
Staszewski said he has been talking to Patterson and Benacci about the project for more than a year.
Patterson is a commercial developer and owner of North Coast Air, the company that provides fueling, ground handling and maintenance services at Erie International Airport. Staszewski said North Coast currently focuses on passenger aircraft, but could easily be expanded to support cargo operations at the airport.
"We are looking forward to our future involvement in the design, construction and operation of the complex," Patterson said.
Benacci's stable of companies includes Lake Erie Logistics, Lake Erie Warehouse and Distribution Center, Dodsworth Trucking and AmtraLease Truck Rental.
Staszewski said the international trade center has been an often-misunderstood project.
"Many people thought the international trade center was simply a building in which Erie Aviation would move its operations," Staszewski said, adding his company always envisioned the project as a complex whose development would require the enterprise and experience of partner companies.
Airport and Erie Aviation officials have created an interim trade center in the former Penn Brass industrial building the airport acquired. The airport is seeking state grant money to help develop a full trade center, which could be built on the former Fenestra industrial site the airport bought, or at an Erie Aviation hangar on the western side of the airport.
Airport officials first asked the state for $5 million to help build a $12.6 million international trade center, but then scaled down that request to $2.5 million to help build a $5 million center.
Currently, the airport's Penn Brass building is serving as an office/incubator/warehouse site with six tenants. Three of those office tenants are German companies or are companies with German roots -- Erie Drewitz International, BTC Solutions and Aqua Rotter of Berlin.
Dan Adamus, a consultant and project manager for Erie Aviation, said the partners are still studying what structure, if any, their partnership might take, and there has not been a decision on whether they could form a joint company.
No estimated dollar amount was given for the development. Adamus said the investment that the three partner firms might be prepared to make is confidential at this point Staszewski said the partnership is in its early development, but said he hopes it will help the project's odds of landing state funds to move the trade center project forward.
