Dive Brief:
- Estes Express Lines, which offered more than $1.5 billion for all of Yellow Corp.’s terminals, instead spent less than $250 million to acquire 24 of the properties sold so far in a bankruptcy court-supervised real estate auction.
- The privately held LTL carrier still came home with the second-most properties of the 21 winning bidders so far. Five facilities, one each in Indiana, Illinois, New Jersey, Mississippi and North Carolina, fetched more than half of its overall spending at the auction, indicating intense interest in those terminals.
- Estes is growing its network beyond the auction, too. The carrier separately opened a 98-door terminal in its hometown of Richmond, Virginia, this month that offers a 25% increase in capacity from an existing facility it has operated since 1984.
Dive Insight:
Estes overcame an October cyberattack and seized opportunities to continue growing its network this year.
Its new Richmond terminal, one of the company’s largest in the country, features 41,000 square feet of dock space and 4,900 square feet of office space on a 20-acre property.
The terminal’s energy-efficient lighting uses 85% less electricity than conventional lighting, and it uses other technologies including an e-dock inventory management system, a line haul dispatch app and automated tools to measure dimensions of incoming freight, according to Estes.
Estes acquires two dozen Yellow terminals
At the Yellow real estate auction, Estes’ most expensive purchases illustrated the premiums carriers will pay for certain properties, particularly for airport-adjacent locations in high-demand markets.
The Indianapolis terminal it purchased for $33.5 million is located between Indianapolis International Airport and the city’s downtown, 2 miles south of a smaller Estes terminal and lot. The terminal received a $31.1 million back-up bid from ArcBest’s real estate arm.
The terminal Estes bought for $30.5 million in Wheeling, Illinois, is only about 6 miles closer to Chicago than an existing Estes terminal in Wheeling, but it’s just blocks from Chicago Executive Airport.
Rounding out its five costliest purchases, Estes bid $24.2 million to win a Cinnaminson, New Jersey, terminal that serves the Philadelphia market; $22.3 million for an Olive Branch, Mississippi, site serving Memphis; and $20.9 million for one in Charlotte, North Carolina, court documents said.
The carrier retained its expense reimbursement and break-up fee rights as stalking-horse bidder in the auction, which resumes next week.
