By Madeleine Bumstead, Southern Idaho Economic Development
Businesses that have put roots down in Southern Idaho are seeing massive success. This success is partly due to the region’s low land and utility costs, a growing talent market, and partners that make building and expansion easy. A major part of that success is Southern Idaho’s strategic location in the Pacific Northwest and comprehensive logistic services that make doing business easy.
Ideal Location
To maximize product distribution, businesses in the region are close to major west coast ports without the high land costs, excessive taxes and red tape. The region also offers an
extensive list of distribution options, including truck, rail and air service.
Direct access to Interstates 84 and 86 provides convenient trucking routes throughout the western and northwestern U.S. Plus, with nearly 270 mainline miles, Eastern Idaho Railroad (EIRR) is one of the largest single short-line spin-offs in Union Pacific history, carrying its nearly 35,000 annual car load capacity.
Affordable and fast truck and rail routes are available to and from major west coast ports, including San Francisco, California, Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington. On average, distributors will only need one to two days to transport products from the Magic Valley to their destination.
Companies also have access to air distribution, including:
- Magic Valley Regional Airport located in Twin Falls, Idaho. This airport offers three daily flights to Salt Lake City International Airport.
- Boise Airport has non-stop service to major west coast airports, including San Francisco, San Jose, Portland and Seattle to name a few.
- Salt Lake City International Airport (SLC) has more than 300 daily flights to 95 non-stop destinations, including all major west coast airports.
Air Infrastructure Upgrades
As a rapidly-growing region in the fastest-growing state in the U.S., it means more people, more travelers and an increasing need for additional air travel infrastructure. Since 2014, the number of passengers flying in and out of Twin Falls has grown by nearly 60 percent.
While the airport currently offers a single destination to Salt Lake City, the Magic Valley Regional Airport was one of 18 cities to recently win the Small Community Air Service Development Program grant.
The $900,000 grant allows the airport to start collaborating with SkyWest to schedule a route to Denver.
The Magic Valley Regional Airport also received grant funds from the Federal Aviation Administration to expand a taxi lane and make room for more hangars and new aeronautical businesses and cargo services.
Nearby the Magic Valley Regional Airport, the Jerome County Airport welcomed a $1.4 million investment from Precision Aviation Inc. in 2019. The aircraft charter business built a 12,500-square-foot hangar and has expanded its services to include a fixed base operation for charter flights, flight training, hanger space, maintenance, fueling, arranging of rental vehicles, and more. Precision Aviation is also building an 8,400-square-foot hanger space and office on the airport grounds. The upgrades will help attract small business jets and diverted flights from other Idaho airports.
State-of-the-Art Storage
The fully-developed infrastructure to process, package, and distribute products to market around the globe wouldn’t be complete without safe and efficient storage.
NewCold, a Dutch cold storage company, has built a $90-million, fully-automated frozen storage facility in Burley, Idaho. The 25 million cubic-foot sub-zero cold storage warehouse is one of the largest of its kind in the U.S. With a storage capacity of 90,000 pallets, the high-tech facility uses robots, conveyor systems and automatic stacker cranes to move, stack, scan and load each pallet directly onto trucks.
To ensure proper storage and prevent fires, the temperature is set to -5 degrees Fahrenheit and the oxygen level is lowered to 16.5 percent within the warehouse. In addition to interstate access, Watco Transportation Services’ short line rail facility is right next door to the NewCold facility.
Companies like WOW Logistics and DOT Foods are two more expansive storage facilities that keep food fresh and ready for distribution.
Combined with affordable and convenient product distribution, the region’s strategic location and low business costs makes Southern Idaho an excellent location to maximize profitability and product distribution.
Stop Searching, Start Building
We know how overwhelming it can be to find the right place to grow or expand your business. The process to capture all of the necessary information is often frustrating and can move slowly. That’s why we’ve made it our mission to move at the speed of business (or quicker) to ensure your questions, needs, and desires are taken into account so you can stop searching and start building.
Southern Idaho is one of the best places to build or grow your business and our economic development team is at the ready to show you around. Ready to get started? Call us today at 208-732-6459 or email Connie at connies@southernidaho.org.
