The Port of Oakland's board of commissioners voted last night to approve a deal with developer CenterPoint Properties to build a $52 million, 440,000-square-foot distribution center on port property, clearing a key hurdle in Oakland's multi-year plan to erect a global logistics and distribution hub on 360 acres adjacent to its marine terminals.

The deal becomes official next month. Work is slated to begin in the first quarter of 2018 and be completed by the end of the year. The commissioners had tentatively approved the project in early November. Oak Brook, Ill.-based CenterPoint will build and manage the DC.

The DC has been touted by the port as the largest such facility ever built on the West Coast. The DC will be the first building constructed on the global campus, which is known as the "Seaport Logistics Complex."

Companies using the facility would require "transloading" services, the transfer of cargo between trucks, trains, and vessels for shipment. Transloading is a common practice at locations near to West Coast ports. However, Oakland officials said it would be one of the few ports to perform the function within its boundaries.

In 2016, the port opened a $100 million rail yard at the complex to enable Western railroads to facilitate the transloading process.

The idea for a global logistics complex has been in the works ever since the Army decommissioned its 364-acre supply base in Oakland in the late 1990s. The port received 187 acres over a four-year period starting in 2003. The city of Oakland received a similar parcel.