Dayton Freight opens at Premier 370 in St. Peters

By: Russell Korando // March 25, 2011

Dayton Freight opens at Premier 370 in St. Peters

Trucking company is first tenant in multi-million-dollar development

By Russell Korando > rkorando@yourjournal.com STLtoday.com | Posted: Friday, March 25, 2011 5:04 pm

Dayton Freight opened its warehouse doors March 14 at Premier 370 Business Park, making it the first business to open in the multi-million-dollar development off Highway 370 in St. Peters.

In excess of 100 workers were moved from Dayton's former location at 7301 Hall St. in St. Louis to the new St. Peters location. Service center manager Mike Gansen said the trucking company and its employees are happy with the new location.

Dayton Freight applied for its occupancy permit Feb. 25 and was issued its business license Feb. 28.

"It's a nice place to be and we're glad to be part of the community and hope for good things to come," Gansen said.

Other than some landscaping, Gansen said the facility is 100 percent operational. Fifteen clerical supervisors and dozens of warehouse workers support the facility's 45 drivers, who make 75 to 80 daily departures.

The site houses a state-of-the-art crossdock with 72 doors, a climate-controlled storage area, maintenance shop and two diesel generators in case of a power disruption.

Dayton Freight, which is based out of Ohio and was formed in 1981, is a regional trucking company. Locally, it picks up freight in St. Louis and overnights it to cities like Chicago and Memphis. Gansen said the St. Peters facility handles freight from Walmart, Lowe's and other retailers.

"We're kind of like an airport where passengers transfer from one plane to another," Gansen said. "We're a common carrier, so just about anything you could imagine, we ship it."

Dayton Freight bought its parcel of land at Premier 370 several years ago, but just opened because the company had outgrown its St. Louis location and Gansen said it was the right time to open for economic reasons.

"Our business is just booming," he said. "On a daily basis, we're up 20 percent local revenue from last year. I'd like to attribute that to our good service, but I think the economy is coming around."

While most of the employees are not from St. Charles County, Gansen said some walk-up traffic has been people inquiring about jobs.

"We're excited to move out here for a lot of reasons," Gansen said. "We're not bringing residents, but the people that work here will be spending money — buying gas, eating locally. And some of our employees are looking at moving here now."

Gansen said Dayton Freight was attracted to the site because of its accessibility to Highway 370 and Interstate 70. Gansen said it's easier for drivers to make the routes north and south of St. Louis from St. Peters. He said Dayton Freight also does a lot of business within the county.

St. Peters Mayor Len Pagano broke the news about Dayton Freight's opening during Thursday's Board of Aldermen meeting. He said Dayton Freight opening its doors means "jobs, jobs, jobs."

Ward 3 aldermen Gus Elliott and Tommy Roberts are glad to see new jobs come to their ward.

"It's a good step forward," Elliott said. "We've got a lot of land out there we need to get good companies into. Our staff has worked tirelessly to make that happen, but this is definitely a good start and will be good for the tax base, that's for sure."

Roberts said it took courage on Dayton's part to be the first business at Premier 370, but he expects the company to prosper.
"(Premier 370) will be a tax-generating, job-generating mecca for years to come," Roberts said.

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