Denver's ProLogis plans to develop a five-building, 1.9-million-square-foot industrial park on land that once housed the Northern Pacific Railway shops.

The 115-acre South Tacoma tract is bordered roughly by South 36th Street, South 56th Street, South Tyler and South Burlington Way.

ProLogis Park Tacoma

When the park is fully developed, ProLogis estimates that between 572 and 950 workers could be employed there depending on what companies lease the buildings. The company has named it ProLogis Park Tacoma.

Prologis said it has not yet signed any leases for the space, but has had active inquiries from clients.

ProLogis spokeswoman Mo Sheahan said the company, the world's largest distribution facility developer, is seeking permits now for the site development. Once those permits are issued, the company will purchase the tract from Northern Pacific successor BNSF Railroad and begin construction of the first building.

The developer is seeking to buy land from Tacoma Public Utilities to provide access from the north end of the business park to South 35th Street and subsequently to Washington 16. Traffic studies have suggested that the truck traffic generated by the warehouses be discouraged from using the southern access at South 56th Street, said Tacoma Economic Development Director Ryan Petty.

The railroad stopped using the land in 1974 and demolished most of the brick railroad shop buildings there. Other than a few small uses, the site has been vacant for more than three decades.

The acreage was for many years an Environmental Protection Agency Superfund cleanup site. Cleanup was completed last year, Petty said.

ProLogis owns 1.5 mllion square feet of distribution warehouses in the Seattle-Tacoma area divided among ten buildings. When the South Tacoma site is fully developed, the park will more than double ProLogis' Puget Sound square footage.

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Some of the site is still served by a rail line that connects with BNSF's main line south of Fort Lewis. That rail line is due for an upgrade by Sound Transit, which plans to use the line for commuter trains serving stations as far south as Dupont. That rail line will be connected to the BNSF lines to the north by a new bridge spanning Pacific Avenue near the Tacoma Dome. Amtrak trains to and from Portland will also use that line.

The Northern Pacific was once the major employer in South Tacoma and helped create the adjacent business district and housing areas.

The railroad constructed its massive shops in 1890. The shop complex was four blocks wide and a mile and a quarter long, according to The South Tacoma Star's 50th anniversary edition in 1940. At its peak, some 1,300 workers labored in 13 brick buildings and 11 wooden structures on the site.

The Griffin Wheel Co. had a plant adjacent to the Northern Pacific site where it built and overhauled railroad wheels.

The shops included a steam plant with a 150-foot smokestack and facilities where engines, freight and passenger cars were rebuilt. The site included its own lumberyard to process and store wood used in railroad car construction.

Petty said the most likely tenants are national firms that source much of their product line in Asia. They would import those products through the Port of Tacoma, bundle them into shipments to stores in Tacoma and then ship them across the country.