Port Everglades will move forward with plans for a new logistics center after receiving approval from Florida's Broward County Commission, port leaders said Monday.

Thanks to the sign-off from local officials, the port will now proceed in a public-private partnership with the Port Everglades International Logistics Center LLC (PE-ILC) for the design, construction, financing, operation, and maintenance of a new logistics center at the Port.

Targeted for completion by April 2019, the new facility will include 240,000 square feet of warehouse facilities with an attached 45,000-square-foot office building on 16 acres of port property west of McIntosh Road. Intended to enhance the services available to shippers using Port Everglades, the project will contain warehouse, refrigerated warehouse, and office space and cross-docking facilities.

The facility will be constructed by PE-ILC under an initial ground lease of 30 years, and will be designated as a foreign trade zone (FTZ). The prime member of the PE-ILC team will be International Warehouse Services Inc. (IWS), joined by construction firm the ANF Group Inc. and land developer Treadwell Franklin Infrastructure Capital LLC.

The port will also proceed with the demolition of the now obsolete existing FTZ facility and with construction of additional marine terminal yards for cargo customers.

"The design and concept of the new logistics center is to provide shipping companies and international customers a full range of port-related services," IWS President and CEO Fred Rogacki said in a release. "This will include 3PL warehousing services and government inspections, as well as refrigerated space for perishable cargo. There is no other port on the East Coast that offers this type of service within one centralized location."