Freeport Center: Situation Plus

Freeport Center is an enormous distributing, warehousing, and manufacturing facility in Clearfield, Utah, located between Ogden and Salt Lake City. It originated in 1963 when the Navy declared surplus and offered to the highest bidder two-thirds of its huge Clearfield Naval Supply Depot (fig. 1). Built during World War II at a relatively safe inland location, the depot had with equal efficiency served units of the Pacific fleet at each of the five large West Coast ports. 1 That advantage of situation made it attractive to private industry; the facility could serve markets to the north, east, and south as efficiently as those to the west. Thus, fourteen investors, incorporated as Freeport Center Associates, bought 600 acres of land with 6.5 million square feet of modern industrial buildings for $5.7 million. 2 Included were 30 miles of railroad track, 21 miles of roads and sidewalks, and complete water, sewer, storm drain, gas, electricity, and telephone systems. Obviously, the purchase of Clearfield Depot was a tremendous bargain if the purchaser could convert it into a profitable facility.