The Winslow City Council unanimously approved a resolution authorizing the city to enter into a sole-source agreement with GLD Partners for conceptual planning services connected to the proposed I-40 TradePort Corridor project.
City Manager David Coolidge said the agreement reflects years of work positioning Winslow within what GLD describes as a nationally coordinated inland trade port system. “This evening, we have the sole source procurement and agreement with GLD Partners for the conceptual planning services,” Coolidge told council as he introduced the item.
Winslow now serves as the lead coalition member under the I-40 TradePort Corridor Development Agreement, which has been designated by the U.S. Department of Transportation as a Regional Infrastructure Accelerator. The city is expected to serve as the recipient of a federal RAISE grant for the corridor project, with a total federal award amount of $15 million and no required local match.
The agreement with GLD Partners is intended to support Winslow’s obligations to coordinate hub development and administer federal grant funds in compliance with federal regulations.
Representatives from GLD Partners provided a presentation outlining the scope of the project, which they described as part of a multi-state logistics and manufacturing network anchored along major interstate corridors. Adam Wasserman of GLD told council that Winslow represents the first phase of development along Interstate 40, which he described as “the busiest of those corridors” within the emerging national system. He said the project is no longer conceptual at a national level. “It’s real, it’s becoming very, very concrete,” Wasserman said, adding that federal transportation officials are directly involved.
GLD emphasized that the project is intended to go beyond traditional warehousing. Wasserman said each trade port would include a logistics core surrounded by an investment district designed to support manufacturing, assembly and specialized industrial uses. “Most of the trade port is around making things,” he said. “If we can perfect and create a proposition around logistics, then we have a shot at talking to companies about actually assembling or making products in northern Arizona.”
Lois Yates of GLD said the firm has been analyzing freight movement along the I-40 corridor to identify specific industry sectors that could be recruited to Winslow. “We’ve divided that into sectors and we’ve done our research in each of those sectors so we understand what is moving, how much is moving and what the future is for those items,” she said. Rather than waiting for companies to approach the city, Yates said GLD intends to proactively target firms whose supply chains align with the region. “We are handpicking companies and approaching them with opportunities for a specific community,” she said.
GLD also highlighted federal engagement tied to the corridor. Wasserman told council that the U.S. Department of Transportation has adopted a unified definition of inland trade ports that GLD helped draft, which has since been incorporated into federal funding programs. He pointed to a $15 million BUILD and RAISE-related planning investment connected to the corridor as the largest federal planning grant of its kind for an inland trade port project.
As part of the broader rollout, GLD announced a planned groundbreaking event for the first phase of the I-40 corridor, scheduled for Feb. 24, in Albuquerque. Wasserman said the event will serve as a symbolic launch for the entire system, including Winslow. “It’s essentially a groundbreaking for the whole system at the first phase,” he said, noting that senior federal transportation officials and major port and industry representatives are expected to attend.
Councilmembers expressed support for the project, citing both economic development potential and quality-of-life impacts. Councilmember Samantha Crisp noted the benefit of consolidating truck traffic outside residential areas. “The biggest thing for me is they won’t be coming into the community, sitting on the side of the road,” she said. Mayor Roberta Cano, referencing discussions at the Arizona Legislature, said the project is being taken seriously at the state level. “This is very much so a reality and very much so on track coming to fruition,” she said.
Following the presentation, council voted unanimously to approve the resolution authorizing the agreement with GLD Partners. The resolution authorizes the city manager to execute the agreement and any subsequent amendments that remain within the approved budget and federal grant requirements.
Immediately afterward, council turned to a related but separate matter involving Atlas Global Development Group. Council approved an ordinance restructuring how the city will acquire a key “hub” property near the Interstate 40 and State Route 87 interchange, separating that acquisition from a larger land sale south of town.
Coolidge explained that the original development agreement tied the city’s acquisition of the hub property to the closing of the Atlas Global land purchase, but delays and expenditure limitations made that structure unworkable. “What this document actually does is separates the two from each other,” Coolidge said. “It allows us to purchase this property without it being contingent on the sale of that property.”
Under the revised agreement approved by council, the City of Winslow will move forward with purchasing a separate hub property located north of Interstate 40 and east of State Route 87. The site totals approximately 288 acres and will be acquired from a private landowner for $1.8 million, paid over a five-year term using capital funds. Coolidge said the payment structure was designed to allow the city to proceed without disrupting other financial obligations. “That was the reason for that methodology — there would be a down payment, which we had already budgeted for and then monthly ongoing payments and we can budget for that accordingly,” he said.
The hub property purchase was originally tied to a separate transaction involving Atlas Global Development Group, which is under contract to buy a much larger city-owned parcel south of the Winslow airport. That parcel totals approximately 1,094 acres, reduced from an earlier 1,200-acre figure and is being sold by the city to Atlas Global for about $1.3 million, or roughly $1,200 per acre. Under the original agreement, Winslow could not proceed with acquiring the hub property until that sale closed.
Vice Mayor Jim MacLean questioned whether committing to the hub purchase could affect the city’s ability to fund other long-term obligations, particularly money set aside annually for the Winslow Levy flood control project. Coolidge said the hub purchase would not impact those funds. “That is always our highest priority,” he said. “That half-million dollars gets set aside first, every year, regardless.”
The ordinance approved by council does not finalize the sale of the airport-area property to Atlas Global, which remains under an extension scheduled to expire at the end of February. Coolidge said Atlas Global has agreed to provide a status update to council at its next regular meeting on Jan. 27.
After a brief discussion, council unanimously approved the ordinance, clearing the way for the city to proceed with the hub property acquisition while continuing negotiations with Atlas Global on the broader development proposal.
In other business, the council:
* Approved past meeting minutes and the check register.
* Approve reappointment of Mary Ann Smith to the Public Safety Personnel Retirement Board.
* Approved an intergovernmental agreement for Homolovi State Park to purchase city owned water at the in-city commercial rate.
* Approved a liquor license application for The Winslow hotel located at 2206 North Park Drive.
* Approved a donation to Real Hope Inc. in the amount of $2,000 for supplying the local food pantry.
The next meeting of the Winslow City Council will be held at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 27, in the meeting room located at 523 W. Second St.
