Foreign Trade Zone 157 covers nearly all of Natrona County, the airport runs a 492 acre magnet site at 8500 Airport Parkway, and FedEx Express flies cargo in and out of the Casper airport. For a fulfillment operator, that is a rare set of tools in a small market: a customs framework, an air cargo link, an interstate and a rail yard, all within a short drive of each other.
A fulfillment center is a different building from a bulk warehouse. Orders are picked by the line, not the pallet, so the interior fills up with mezzanines, pick modules, conveyors, pack stations and returns benches. Power density is higher, lighting is better, and data connections run everywhere. Dock doors matter less than the flow from receiving to shipping. We build the shell with all that in mind and leave room to add equipment later.
We are plain about scale. Casper does not have the population of a large metro, and a fulfillment operation here usually serves a regional or specialty market, or a company that needs a base in the state. Energy Transportation Inc., a logistics firm, is headquartered in Casper, so the freight community is real, just compact. We size buildings to the customer base you can actually reach.
The airport reports United Express service as its scheduled passenger link and a daily FedEx cargo flight, and its business park next door houses more than 35 businesses. A parcel carrier flying cargo here means an operator can sort and stage product near the field, and the zone lets certain imported goods be stored without paying duty until they leave. Our airport area page lays out what sits around the field.
Casper Logistics Hub, Magnet Site 2 of the zone at 6 Mile Road and Commerce Street, offers 984 acres near the rail yard. That makes it a candidate for larger operators who want rail-served space, with the airport for urgent shipments and the interstate for everything else.
We start with your order profile: lines per order, units per line, peak and average days, return rates and the product mix. Those numbers decide whether you need a conveyor, a goods-to-person system, simple pick carts or a combination, and they set the column spacing and clear height. A building drawn without that data usually needs expensive changes within two years.
Then comes the flexible shell. We build columns on a grid that fits shelving and automation, a slab with the flatness your equipment needs, and an electrical service and conduit grid that can grow. Our fulfillment and logistics center construction service follows the same sequence from program to turnover.
The core scope is a conditioned building with a flat slab, a high ceiling, wide aisles and good lighting. Mezzanines go in early because they carry conveyors and pick modules, and their columns affect the slab. Offices, break rooms and a returns area sit at one end, with a secure area for high-value goods.
Data and power come next. Fiber is arriving near the airport business park, where a grant of $617,483 was approved to put about 30,000 linear feet of fiber optic cable in and around it. That kind of connectivity is what scanners, warehouse software and automation depend on. We run the cable trays, outlets and network rooms to your technology plan.
Fire protection and heat deserve their own line. Small-parcel product often includes plastics, batteries and packaging that raise the commodity class, and a mezzanine with racking above it changes the sprinkler design. The City of Casper lists a 3,000 air freezing index and a three foot frost line, so the building needs real insulation and a heating plan that works in January with dock doors opening all day. We settle the sprinkler basis and the heating load with the engineers before the shell is priced, because both change the cost of the roof and the mechanical room.
Fulfillment overlaps with other building types and we help owners pick the right one. A distribution center moves pallets in volume, a bulk warehouse stores them and a cold storage building holds temperature-controlled product. Some operators need two of these under one roof.
Retail brands that sell online and in stores often split product between a store supply chain and an online one. That is a conversation we have with owners in retail chains, and the answer shapes how many docks, how much racking and how many pick stations the building needs.
A fulfillment center usually has a hard deadline: it has to be running before a peak shipping season. We work back from that date. Steel, dock equipment, electrical gear and the automation vendor's equipment all have lead times, and the automation vendor's installation crew needs the floor clear for weeks.
That means the shell has to be complete, conditioned and inspected before the integrator starts. We stage the schedule so the slab, roof, power and fire protection are done first, and we give the integrator a firm turnover date. Missing it pushes the whole season.
Companies that roll out several sites often want one builder for all of them. Our programmatic multi-site rollouts approach reuses a standard design, a standard bill of materials and a standard schedule, while adjusting for local codes and frost, wind and snow values.
If you are leasing space and need a fit-out instead of a new building, we do that too under tenant improvements. The fit-out of an existing shell can be much faster than new construction, and it is a good choice for a trial operation.
Send us your order volumes and product mix. We will turn them into a building program and a budget range.
It depends on the system. Mezzanine and shelving operations often work at 24 to 32 feet, while automated storage can go higher. We pick the height with your integrator.
It can, if you handle imported goods. The zone allows duty deferral on goods stored in it. You will need to work with the zone operator, and we plan the layout with the paperwork flow in mind.
Fiber is being added there, and the Wyoming Business Council approved a grant for about 30,000 linear feet in and around the business park. We confirm service at your parcel before assuming it.
A shell on a ready site can go up in months, and the automation install adds more. Permit review, steel delivery and the integrator's lead times each take their share. We give a schedule with the integrator's dates in it, and we update it every month so the peak-season deadline stays visible.
Yes, if we plan for it. We keep an end wall expandable, leave room on the site for more dock positions and size the utilities for the final footprint. Adding a bay to a building that was built for it is a small job. Adding one to a building that was not is a major one.