For budding investment/management firm, integrating rail-related businesses is a must

By Jeff Stagl, Managing Editor 

Rail + Industrial Partners LLC uses an interesting catch phrase to describe the business space the company strives to maneuver in: at the intersection of rail transportation and industrial development and redevelopment. 

Established about three years ago, the firm focuses on acquisitions, investments and strategic partnerships within that window. Rail + Industrial Partners seeks to invest in operating entities (such as railroads and transload facilities), rail-served industrial real estate assets and rail services in North America to foster seamless integrated solutions. 

Managed by a team of entrepreneurial veterans from the rail and industrial development industries, the company seeks to acquire or gain a stake in Class I spin-offs, short lines, private industrial rail divestitures, independent rail service operators, rail-served industrial parks and real estate. 

The firm’s approach “creates a huge runway for growth” through partnerships with Class Is, short lines, and other transportation and development stakeholders, says Tim Eklund, a Rail + Industrial Partners founder and managing partner. 

Eklund previously spent five years with OmniTRAX Inc., first responsible for identifying acquisition and investment opportunities, and later for expanding the company’s transloading, terminal, logistics and supply-chain solutions. He also spent nearly five years at Progressive Rail Inc. in a corporate development role and a year with Marquette Rail Inc. as chief manager after helping to found the short-line start up. 

“There are a number of heavy industrial sites out there begging for re-use.” — Tim Eklund Rail + Industrial Partners LLC

Rail + Industrial Partners strives to execute its growth strategy through a portfolio of integrated service offerings provided by the following owned, managed and affiliated companies: Rail + Industrial Transportation, Rail + Industrial Terminals and Rail + Industrial Development. The company’s current service offerings include transloading, rail-car cleaning and storage, and industrial development. 

Earlier this year, Rail + Industrial Partners partnered with Railroading Heritage of Midwest America (RRHMA) to develop a new Heartland Rail Terminal in Silvis, Illinois. The terminal will be located at the site of the former Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad locomotive/car shop that’s now owned by an affiliate of the heritage organization. 

The affiliate of RRHMA — a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting the history of railroading in the Midwest — assumed operations of the Silvis facility in early 2022. 

The Heartland Rail Terminal will provide various rail-car and freight-rail logistics services, including transloading, car storage, and car cleaning, maintenance and repairs. Rail + Industrial Partners plans to acquire additional acreage at the site to gain the capacity to expand into storage-in-transit yard storage services and transload terminal development.  

Located 140 miles west of Chicago, RRHMA’s Silvis site has direct interchange access to BNSF Railway Co. and Iowa Interstate Railroad LLC, as well as additional access to Canadian Pacific Kansas City, CSX, CN, Norfolk Southern Railway and Union Pacific Railroad. The facility also is adjacent to several major interstates. 

The 500,000-square-foot shop in Silvis — which is registered as an historical site — is underused and close in proximity to Chicago, a major rail hub, says Eklund. Plans call for immediately offering car cleaning/storage and transloading services at the new terminal. 

“The attributes are too compelling to not develop this site. We want to create a terminal for commercial and industrial activities there,” he says. 

Rail + Industrial Partners serves many car storage customers in North America, one of which recently was seeking a site in the Midwest offering multiple Class I access. RRHMA uses the shop to rebuild, restore and preserve historical rail equipment, but only uses about 20% of the facility, says Eklund. 

“We see this as a multi-functional site,” he says, adding that, over time, the site also could be used as a testing center for emerging technologies. 

Heartland Rail Terminal currently is soliciting expressions of interest from customers who are interested in using the facility. Technically, the terminal already is open and Rail + Industrial Partners is pre-marketing the site for traffic, says Eklund. 

The Silvis operation also will come into play for a Rail + Industrial Partners project that’s been delayed for a few years. 

In 2023, Rail + Industrial Partners announced it had teamed up with Good Earth Minerals LLC to jointly develop a rail-served terminal and product origination transload facility in southwest Utah near Good Earth’s mining operations in northern Arizona.  

A mineral solutions company, Good Earth develops, produces and distributes products based on high-performance calcium sulfate dihydrate that are used in the agriculture, pharmaceuticals, automotive and aerospace industries. 

But the terminal has not yet been built, says Eklund. Good Earth is finalizing its primary funding, and then the project can commence. 

“We are going to be setting up a transitional transload operation — rail to truck — in Silvis in the second quarter and will be working with them on the build out of their origin facility in Utah,” says Eklund. 

In the meantime, Rail + Industrial Partners is exploring other business opportunities in various locations. 

“There are a number of heavy industrial sites out there begging for re-use. There’s a pipeline of facilities and sites,” says Eklund. 

For example, Rail + Industrial Partners is interested in pursuing industrial park opportunities in Nevada, Texas, and just about anywhere in the Sunbelt, he says. The company strives to anchor a park with a transload facility because it creates and breeds activity, serves as a business incubator and creates a more viable business environment, Eklund says. 

“It helps migrate customers to a park so they can become a forever customer,” he says. 

To that end, Rail + Industrial Partners recently partnered with Redevco Solutions LLC to begin developing a rail industrial park near Maricopa, Arizona. The 680-acre SMARTRail Park would feature about 12 million square feet of industrial and business developments, and a living community for the on-site workforce. There will be 8 million square feet of both rail- and non-rail-served industrial properties, says Eklund. 

Early projections show the park — which will likely take several years to complete — could create between 18,000 and 36,000 jobs in the Maricopa area.  

“Many people in Maricopa drive 35 to 40 miles to Phoenix for work. Maricopa wants more jobs in the city,” says Eklund. 

Rail + Industrial Partners is finalizing the park’s master plan and then will seek city approval of the project. The company also is working with UP to create rail access at the park. 

“We might break ground in the fourth quarter,” says Eklund. “Some global manufacturers already are asking about the park.”