Owner Coast 2000 has completed a 252,000 square foot warehouse in a Phase One development covering 30 acres of a 92-acre (37 hectare) site leased from the Port Authority.

As the first Canadian National train hauling pulp arrived and seamlessly switched eight cars for unloading, container trucks began a frequent shuttle of empty boxes onto the site for loading.

Coast 2000 President Kevin Ouellette says the facility will eventually have a marked impact on reducing traffic congestion in the Lower Mainland.

"We are looking at a series of important distribution centres and once the site is built out we feel we will have a positive impact on Lower Mainland traffic by taking more and more trucks off the road," says Ouellette.

With a CN rail spur, 11 acres of container storage, and a covered barge-unloading ramp, Coast 2000 will soon become a funnel for British Columbia products going overseas via the major Lower Mainland container terminals of Deltaport, Fraser Surrey Docks, Vanterm and Centerm. The new facility is ideally situated equi-distant between the major terminals and close to the United States border. It will employ about 60 full time employees and eventually operate 24/7.

Coast 2000 represents the latest tenant to open for business on the Fraser River Port Authority's Richmond Properties. A huge used car auction which draws clients from all over North America, a major distribution centre for the Hudson Bay and associated companies, and a large yard and garden waste recycling plant are already on the site and further tenants are expected to be announced by the Port Authority in 2004.

Ouellette praised the co-operation received from the Fraser River Port Authority. "They have been great, very co-operative," he says. "It's obvious they want to make this project a go."

The Port Authority began the site preparation of its 281 hectare (about 694 acre) Richmond Properties 15 years ago on land that was once the Richmond City landfill. The site will continue to develop through 2010 and eventually will include its own deep-sea dock facility.