The Harbor Performance Enhancement Center has secured capital for the development of a 5.5 million square foot container staging hub at the Port of Los Angeles.

The new project will transform 110 acres into the container staging facility, incorporating new technologies with the goal of addressing problems that constrain freight flow at the busiest port in the Western Hemisphere. HPEC secured capital for the project through a transaction with Macquarie Principal Finance.

When complete, the project will take 3,500 truckloads per day from nearby container terminals to the HPEC staging area. HPEC aims to improve flow, increase velocity, reduce emissions, add jobs, and increase efficiency of imported containers passing through the 14 terminals at the San Pedro complex.

The container staging facility will use a hub-and-spoke distribution model to improve efficiency, using the same system already in use by FedEx, UPS, and Yellow Freight. With its central location to the largest container terminals at the Port of Los Angeles, the project will affect critical truck-based cargo movements and potentially augment core cargo handling functions, according to HPEC.

"HPEC’s innovative approach will relieve congestion throughout the region, increase cargo velocity through the Port, lower handling costs, reduce emissions, and dramatically improve freight flow efficiencies in the San Pedro Bay complex”, said Alex Cherin, executive director of the California Trucking Association's Intermodal Conference. 

"With HPEC coming online, the trucking community and its customers will have one start-stop location to pick up and drop off containers, distributing to regional hubs around the clock," Cherin added. "This is one of the most important projects in the nation and will be a real game-changer.”