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The Port of Richmond and Auto Warehousing Co. have formally opened the new 100-acre automotive distribution facility at the historic Point Potrero Marine Terminal. American Honda has begun distributing vehicles through the facility. Members of the Richmond City Council, the Port of Richmond, Auto Warehousing and the BNSF Railway held a grand opening Sept. 14th to commemorate the new terminal and Honda’s return to Richmond. TransDevelopment Group designed and built the $40-million project under contract with terminal operator Auto Warehousing. TransDevelopment also managed project planning, environmental permitting and development coordination with the BNSF and neighboring industrial companies.

The Port of Richmond California has kicked off the construction phase of $40-million in new port and rail infrastructure work at the historic Point Potrero Marine Terminal. The turnkey project will greatly enhance the port’s rail operations, allow American Honda Motor Co. to import vehicles for local dealers, and create a hub for outbound rail shipments. In 2009, Honda finalized an agreement with Auto Warehousing Co. (AWC) and the Port of Richmond to import more than 150,000 vehicles annually from foreign assembly plants to the San Francisco Bay Area. For three years, TransDevelopment has worked closely with AWC, the Port of Richmond, American Honda, and the BNSF Railway to bring the project to reality.

The Port of Richmond has broken ground to kick off a $40-million rail infrastructure development that will allow the port to handle more than 145,000 imported American Honda vehicles per year. Earlier this year, American Honda announced that it would shift some of its imported vehicle volume to Richmond from the Port of San Diego. The construction project will dramatically increase BNSF Railroad service to the port. The existing rail line serving industrial tenants along the port entrance roadway will be upgraded and a second, dedicated, rail line will be added exclusively to serve the Honda account and other automotive tenants. A seven-track railcar loading and unloading facility will be built at the Point Potrero Marine Terminal.

Later this year, when the first finished vehicles roll off the assembly line at Kia Motors Corp.’s newest manufacturing plant in West Point, Georgia, they will flow directly through a series of efficient processing facilities that were master planned by TransDevelopment Group. Then, the next-generation Kia Sorento SUVs will be loaded onto rail cars and travel over a new network of trackwork developed by TransDevelopment on Kia’s property where they will be privately switched to the CSX Transportation mainline and shipped to dealers across the United States and Canada. The $50-million Kia vehicle processing center and rail terminal – which included State of Georgia grant funding – is the third automotive assembly plant project that TransDevelopment has developed in the Southeast since 2003.