Hazelwood, Missouri, located in suburban St. Louis, 30 minutes northwest of central St. Louis along the Missouri river, has become a go-to destination for companies seeking a manufacturing, fulfillment and logistics base in the center of midwestern commerce. Hazelwood, the industrial center for the Greater St. Louis metropolitan area, has seen significant industrial development in the last 20 years, including the creation of mixed-use business parks that provide companies with an immediate footprint in Missouri with easy access to the rest of the Midwest.
Hazelwood TradePort is a nine building, 3.8 million square foot master planned industrial park located in Hazelwood. The park, which is zoned industrial, features a mix of both cross-docked and single rear-loaded space that has encouraged a highly diverse tenant mix. The 336-acre master plan development is owned and developed by Kansas city-based NorthPoint development.
Founded in 2012, NorthPoint has developed approximately 140.2 million square feet in more than 24 states for tenants such as Chewy, Home Depot, Amazon, UPS, Lowe’s, Hostess, GE, Adidas, Ford and General Motors.
Most buildings in the Hazelwood TradePort park are in the 500,000 square-foot range and include 54-foot by 52-foot column spacings and 36-foot and 40-foot ceiling clear heights. The site provides electrical resources well suited to industrial applications as well as concrete floors, high efficiency LED warehouse lights with occupancy sensors, Clerestory windows and generous truck courts and truck parking. Electric services are provided by Ameren Missouri, natural gas is supplied by Spire Inc., water is from Missouri American Water and sewer resources are provided by the Metropolitan St. Lewis Sanitary District. The buildings feature a state-of-the-art ESFR sprinkler system for fire protection, and the property has ample telecom resources with established fiber networks for optimal business connectivity.
Currently, more than 3.8 million square feet of space is occupied by a number of high profile tenants, including 8th Avenue Foods, a company that specializes in manufacturing and marketing private brand food items; Boeing Co.; Crown Packaging; Marson Foods and furniture giant Wayfair, as well as more local-oriented businesses. The facility counts its ability to cater to the needs of different types and sizes of companies as a core strength.
“We have a mix of both cross-docked and single load space to give us a very diverse tenant mix within the park,” said Mark Militzer, Regional Vice President of NorthPoint Development. “Some of the cross-docks have one single user in them, such as BJC in building five, which is 412,000 square feet. Building nine is also close to 400,000 square feet, and it’s a single load space with five separate tenants.”
In addition, Circle K, a large international chain of convenience stores and fuel stations owned by Canadian company Alimentation Couche-Tard, is currently building out their tenant improvements within 211,000 square feet of 510,000 total square feet in building seven. The building shell was delivered in 2022. The new additions include a standalone warehouse and logistics center. At the end of 2024, CircleK announced three new distribution centers throughout the Midwest and chose Hazelwood TradePort as the site for one of them.
NorthPoint calls the options provided to tenants as “different suits.”
“We want to provide different options for the tenant mix within the market,” said Militzer. “That’s why we planned it that way we did. The main buildings in the park, which comprise 3.8 million square feet covering more than 350 acres, represent a $300 million investment in the St. Louis Metro area. Construction began on the facility in 2018 and finished in 2022.”
The global COVID-19 pandemic sped development of the park due to the markedly increased need for industrial spaces because of the rise in online sales in the pandemic years, which expedited the need for storage and logistics space.
“We ended up building 6, 9 and 10 almost simultaneously,” said Militzer.
An Ideal Location for Access to Markets
The Hazelwood location of the park offers outstanding proximity and accessibility. The park is immediately adjacent to Missouri highway 370, a multi-lane state road, and is within minutes of Interstates 270, 170 and 70, providing easy access in all four directions. In recent years, a complete overhaul of the nearby highway interchange was undertaken, giving the site ideal access to the highway for the purpose of transportation.
The facility is a 12-minute drive to St. Louis Lambert International Airport, and there are four Metro bus stops located in the park for the benefit of the workforce. Additionally, Metrolink public transit rail service extends from the Metro East in Illinois to Lambert airport, 12 miles from the Hazelwood TradePort site.
A Centralized Location Means Access to a Ready Workforce
Because Hazelwood is centrally located in an urban midwestern region and already proximal to a variety of high-technology and aerospace companies, the region has a strong, well-educated and ready workforce already in place for incoming companies to tap. Companies located in Hazelwood TradePort are able to attract workers from all over the growing Greater St. Louis region. The average commute time is an admirable 21 minutes in the St. Louis area. In addition, Hazelwood is a short drive for workers living over the border in Illinois. The region has a favorable cost of living profile, which is attractive to potential workers.
Missouri State Incentives Benefit New Ventures in Hazelwood
The State of Missouri offers a variety of benefits to companies that locate in the state, including workforce training programs through the region’s network of community colleges as well as tax incentives for business operations.
All buildings within Hazelwood TradePort offer significantly reduced taxes with an 18 year abatement schedule that is not subject to reassessment, making it an attractive economic prospect.
In addition, the Missouri Works Program, which incentivizes job creation with a tax credit and a tax retention benefit, is ready and willing to partner with Hazelwood TradePort tenants to relocate their companies. This program can help businesses purchase equipment to maintain their facility in Missouri.
Workforce recruitment assistance is available through Missouri One Start, the state’s workforce recruitment and training division. One Start helps businesses stay competitive by providing customized recruitment assistance and offering resources to train and upskill new and existing employees. The program’s recruitment strategies and training programs can be tailored to the specific workforce needs of a businesses.
Another unique incentive available to companies locating at Hazelwood TradePort is a program called the Hazelwood Relocation Assistance Program, or HRAP. The program, which is administered by Missouri One Start through the Missouri Department of Economic Development, assists companies in relocating from other states. Companies apply for Missouri One Start Training Program assistance and specifically request relocation assistance benefits. With a significant portion of the Greater St. Louis workforce residing in Illinois, the program seeks to attract residents of Illinois or other states to resettle in Missouri. Companies whose employees resettle in Missouri can earn up to $3,500 per employee, and the City of Hazelwood will match that award. In addition, if the resettled employee purchases a home in Missouri, that worker receives a matching sum.
To discover more about the benefits of locating a business within the growing Hazelwood TradePort park, contact David Leezer at 217-607-9754 or daleezer@hazelwoodmo.org. T&ID
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