DHL (Plantation, Fla.) held a ground-breaking ceremony today on the site of its new East Coast Distribution Facility in Allentown, Penn. The new facility will be the primary DHL distribution center on the East Coast. Scheduled for completion by September of 2006, the Allentown facility will have a handling capacity of 40,000 letters per hour and 50,000 parcels per hour. It will have a base footprint of 290,000 square feet with an additional 200,000 square feet of mezzanine workspace, and 12,000 square feet of office space.
“The start of construction at our new East Coast Distribution Facility is part of our ongoing network investment program to develop the most robust and most flexible network across North America,” said Steve White, senior vice president, Hub & Gateways, DHL Americas. With an estimated cost of $107 million, the Allentown facility is part of a $1.2-billion network investment program launched by DHL in June of 2004.