- M&P Logistics wants to develop a new parking area in Florence with space for 21 box trucks, 21 semi-tractors, and 50 passenger vehicles.
- The project includes landscaping upgrades, a berm, evergreen screening, and a decorative fence to reduce truck visibility from I-71/75.
- Company officials say the site would serve as fleet parking for its growing logistics operations rather than a traditional freight terminal.
An expanding logistics company has unveiled plans to develop a new parking area for box trucks, semi-trailers and passenger vehicles in front of its headquarters in Florence.
Last Wednesday, Mackenzie & Paige Logistics, more commonly known as M&P Logistics, presented a proposal to the Boone County Planning Commission to amend a concept development plan for approximately 1.7 acres, located west of the company’s headquarters at 7900 Tanner’s Gate Lane in Florence. The parcel is currently zoned as Commercial Two with a Parkway Corridor overlay.
If M&P Logistics succeeds in the zoning process, the company will build a new parking area with the capacity to hold 21 box trucks, 21 semi-tractors and 50 vehicles. In addition, M&P plans to install a three-foot berm along the Interstate 71/75 frontage, replace the existing chain-link fence with a five-foot-tall, four-rail horse fence along the frontage and install a buffer yard along the frontage.
Justin Verst, a design engineer at Viox & Viox, said the berm and other vegetation installations are intended to reduce the visibility of parked trucks from the interstate.
“We’re proposing all evergreens across there to try to really make a nice solid wall year-round,” Verst said. “You’re not gonna be able to hide the whole parking lot, but if we can hide the tractors, which will be parking along there, that’s what we’re going for.
Currently, the larger site is home to a parking lot – albeit one that is much smaller than the proposal. Adjacent to the parking lot is a grassy field that was, at one point, home to a commercial building that hosted a restaurant, a car sales lot and a fitness facility over the years.
“The site is currently occupied by a parking lot and a grass area where a former commercial building used to be located,” Schwartz said. “There is a mature tree line existing along the south property line. In 1987, Florence City Council approved a zoning map amendment, changing the site from C-2 to C-3 to allow an automobile and boat sales facility, and then it was rezoned back to C-2.”
Steve Hall, president of M&P Logistics, said the company wanted to use the site primarily as a parking area for its truck fleet, rather than as a freight terminal, with most vehicles parked empty while awaiting dispatch.
Moreover, Hall said the site would be used occasionally to store high-value cargo, including AI-related equipment, so that it could be safely kept on-site under employee supervision. He also said no loading, unloading or freight transfer operations would occur there.
“M&P Logistics is a nationwide transportation company, so we haul anything from raw materials to really high-value, sensitive products,” Hall said. “Really, the need of this has come out, as we continue to grow the box trucks are hauling a lot of very – again, I’ll use the word sensitive or high value – AI, that part of the world is really coming into this area, and we haul that all around the country.”
Founded in 2011 by Union native Kimberly Barr, M&P Logistics provides dry-van and refrigerated transportation, along with specialized options such as white-glove deliveries, rail and port drayage–transporting freight from a port or rail to a destination–and sprinter and box truck expediting. M&P also has operational hubs in California and Florida. Hall said the company has 105 trailers deployed across the United States.
In 2022, M&P Logistics moved to its new headquarters to accommodate its expanding operations. The company acquired a 26,000-square-foot building on Tanner’s Gate Lane, which was previously vacant, to house its white-collar staff, such as sales, operations, administrative personnel, and middle management.
The next step for M&P’s proposal is to be heard before the planning commission’s Zone Change Subcommittee at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, May 20.
