Earlier this month, Consolidated Freightways Corp. held an auction at its terminal near Carlisle to sell its equipment and unclaimed freight. But if you missed that event, there's still time to own a piece of the bankrupt trucking firm.
By the end of this year, the business hopes to sell its two terminals in the midstate through auctions, said Mike Brown, a spokesman for the trucking company. The business had employed about 900 workers at those defunct terminals, which are in Middlesex Township, Cumberland County, and Manchester Township, York County.
Consolidated Freightways abruptly closed Sept. 2 - Labor Day - and laid off 15,500 workers. The Vancouver, Wash.-based company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Sept. 3. It closed 350 terminals in the United States, Canada and Mexico. The trucking firm is continuing to liquidate its assets.
Jack Shepley, a partner with the Industrial Properties Group at NAI/Commercial-Industrial Realty Co., predicted that Consolidated's two area terminals would sell quickly. His real estate marketing firm is in Wormleysburg.
Trucking firms typically struggle to secure land-development approvals from the municipalities in which they wish to build terminals, Shepley said. Residents often raise concerns that truck terminals bring traffic and noise. Many trucking firms in the region want to move to larger terminals, but they are unable or unwilling to because of the difficult process to get approvals, he said.
"When you have a trucking terminal that exists, it's a real positive," Shepley said. "I don't think they'll have a hard time selling those properties."
An executive at a midstate trucking firm was less sure.
Chris Peters, vice president of operations at Carlisle Carrier Corp., said relatively few trucking firms would be able to use Consolidated's two area terminals.
The buildings were designed for Consolidated, which is a "less than truckload," or LTL, carrier. The business delivers goods that fill less than a truckload. Such carriers require multiple dock doors at their terminals because they receive goods from several trucks. Truckload carriers, which deliver full truckloads, do not need many dock doors.
Relatively few LTL carriers do business in Central Pennsylvania, Peters said. And a lot of the large ones that are capable of buying Consolidated's terminals already are in the region, he said. His truckload carrier is based in Hampden Township, Cumberland County. "The (Consolidated) terminal in Carlisle is in a spectacular spot, but only 10 companies could use it," Peters said.
The Middlesex Township terminal has 305 dock doors. The Manchester Township terminal has 124 dock doors. An average-sized trucking terminal in Central Pennsylvania has between 100 and 150 dock doors, said Jim Runk, president of the Pennsylvania Motor Truck Association. His Camp Hill-based association represents trucking firms statewide.
In November, Consolidated began selling its 220 properties through auctions, The real estate has an appraised value of more than $400 million.
The company has sold 87 properties for $207 million, Brown said. That figure is 115 percent of the appraised value of those properties, he said. The trucking firm hopes to sell all of its properties by the end of this year, he said.
Consolidated places each property on the auction block after an interested buyer conducts due diligence studies on the real estate and bids for it, Brown said. That figure becomes the opening bid at the auction, he said.
Generally, Consolidated holds one auction per month, during which it sells between 10 and 20 properties, Brown said. The company held its most recent real estate auction June 18. The next such auction is scheduled for July 17.
The business has yet to determine when it will try to sell its terminals in Central Pennsylvania, Brown said. Representatives of Transportation Property Co., the company that Consolidated hired to market its real estate, could not be reached for comment. Transportation Property is based in Del Mar, Calif.
