A massive, mostly vacant land parcel beside Philadelphia International Airport could become a bustling shipping hub for everything from medicine to car parts under a plan to develop the site into a new air-freight complex serving a swath of the northeastern United States.
The airport last month acquired control of the so-called Henderson Tract, which sprawls 135 acres — an area similar in size to the entire King of Prussia Mall and its parking lots — to the immediate west of its passenger terminals.
The move caps a years-long battle over the fate of the property in Tinicum Township, Delaware County, and is a first step by Philadelphia toward cashing in on its location among some of the nation’s biggest population centers in hopes of becoming a major air-freight power.
