New UPS sorting facility at TPA begins to take shape

New UPS sorting facility at TPA begins to take shape

The shipping company's new complex will support Next Day Air services for Tampa Bay and Florida's west coast.

Construction crews are working hard to deliver a new home for international shipping company UPS on the east side of the Tampa International Airport campus.

A new 40,000 square-foot cargo building is going up near the PEMCO World Air Services hangar on North Westshore Boulevard. It's part of a wide-ranging project that includes taxiway, apron and roadway improvements and a new City of Tampa pump station.

The Aviation Authority-owned building to be leased by UPS will be a purpose-built sorting facility for Next Day Air package deliveries for the west coast of Florida. When completed, it will have the capacity to sort up to 7,500 packages per hour. The UPS complex is being built by design-build team Middlesex/AECOM and will feature an employee parking lot, truck courts and trailer parking, plus available space to park four aircraft.

UPS currently uses an air cargo building north of the Main Terminal and loads aircraft on the hardstand west of the Tampa Airport Marriott. That space is the site of the future Airside D, which is scheduled to start construction in 2024 and be in operation by early 2028.

Construction spans about 18 acres on the Airport's east side, and includes building an aircraft parking apron and expanding the taxiway that will be shared with the FedEx building next door, as well as resurfacing North Westshore Boulevard and West Ohio Avenue to improve access to the new complex.

The project, estimated to cost $79.5 million, was initially approved by the Hillsborough County Aviation Authority Board of Directors in 2019, but the start date was delayed until June 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Funding is a combination bonds, state grants, Passenger Facility Charges and City of Tampa money for the new sewage system pump station.

The facility is expected to be substantially completed by the end of 2023.

(Photos via TPA, Aerial Innovations, Middlesex/AECOM; click to download)