Tradepoint Atlantic – A growing ‘city of logistics’

Tradepoint Atlantic’s city of logistics is growing fast, project by project.

Tradepoint Atlantic (TPA) is a mammoth 3,300-acre multi-modal logistics center located in the Port of Baltimore on Sparrows Point, near the entry of the Patapsco River from Chesapeake Bay and ultimately, the Atlantic Ocean.

On many levels TPA is a unique place. It is difficult to find a similar space anyplace else on the East Coast or for that matter in North America. From a 20,000-foot view looking down on the facility jutting out into the Patapsco River, it is a maze of about 16 million square feet of newly built structures along with a slew of DCs, piers, rail and road connections with more projects ready to be added — such as a new container terminal.

Even now with the impressive build out, it’s still hard to realize that a relatively short time ago Sparrows Point wasn’t a mega-logistics center but rather little more than a dream in waiting. Bethlehem Steel occupied the site and operated one of the world’s largest steel mills on the site before ceasing operations in 2012. In 2014 Redwood Holdings took over Sparrows Point and the colossal process of turning the moribund steel mill into a mega-logistics hub began.

The Mega-Buildouts: A City of Logistics

The problem, or perhaps the better term would be “challenge”, for TPA was given Sparrows Point’s immense inventory of real estate, with marine, rail and highway connectivity, exactly what do you build?

And the answer has been a bit of everything which introduces its own set of challenges — as has been said a number of times before, you don’t want to ‘process’ a Lamborghini next to a salt pile.

So, while it may look like a random development from 20,000-foot view, there has been a great deal of strategy behind the complex’s build-out. In a sense, TPA is a ‘City of Logistics’ and like any ‘planned’ modern city there is an infra-structure of retail shops and restaurants. But also in keeping with its mission,a specialized logistics links like an onsite railroad [Tradepoint Rail (TPR)] — connecting to main line two Class 1 railroads, CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern, along with an industrial road system designed to handle freight which connects to Maryland’s interstate highway system via I-695 (which is partially cut-off until the replacement for the Francis Scott Key Bridge is built).

Since TPA opened its door, the development has attracted a wide array of name brand companies to the site, such as Amazon, Under Armour, Floor & Décor, Home Depot, Perdue, McCormick and Company (the world’s largest distributor of spices), Niagara Bottling, RPM, and East Coast Warehouse. In addition, the logistics complex has added highly specialized facilities such as vehicle processing centers (VPC) for brands like BMW, Volkswagen and McLaren (a British maker of luxury autos), as well as a roll-on/roll-off pier to facilitate auto loadings and discharge, and a paved area dedicated for bulk and breakbulk commodities.

TPA New Bulk Conveyance System

Almost exactly a year ago on June 4^th, 2025, TPA announced a $35 million investment in a state-of-the-art conveyance system to handle bulk cargoes. In some ways the bulk conveyance system is one of a number of TPA’s assets that has flown under the radar — after all when you can announce a billion-dollar MSC (TiL) container terminal, or Amazon’s $125 million plus facility or the $80 million plus that Under Armour (UA) dropped on their facility — in the public’s eye, a bulk conveyance system doesn’t rise to the same level as these other big name investments do.

But TPA’s conveyance system harkens back to a core concept for Sparrows Point logistics site — facilitating the movement of all types of cargo, and keeping industry in motion. Operating a bulk and breakbulk terminalis a central feature of the overall vision the TPA has for the development of the 75-acre bulk area, located in the southeast peninsula of the property. After all Sparrows Point began as a steel mill processing the bulk commodities that come with steelmaking. As Managing Director Kerry Doyle said of the reasoning behind improving the efficiency of the bulk cargo operations, “our strategic plan was to leverage our strategic location and highly connected assets and invest heavily into a modern multi-commodity terminal operation.”

TPA has done that by standing up Tradepoint Terminal, which operates TPA’s bulk, breakbulk and vehicle logistics terminal. It is also worth noting that the Port of Baltimore itself has a long history of handling bulk and breakbulk commodities, such as coal, grains for export, salt, sugar, gypsum, iron ore, and fertilizer on the import side. What the new conveyor system does is optimize the movement of bulk cargo from the vessel to the land-side storage and land-side movement to destination. And besides extending TPA’s reach, the conveyor system complements the bulk niche that the Port of Baltimore has established for drawing bulk commodities from the US East Coast for import and export.

The bulk conveyor system is an illustration of the breadth of Tradepoint Atlantic’s ongoing expansion. Just as the future container terminal and all the logistics assets currently lodged at the 3,300-acre site show TPA is an expanding multi-faceted city of logistics unlike any other on the US East Coast.