GREENSBORO — Nineteen of the Triad’s colleges and universities stepped forward Friday with a plan to work with area job recruiters to turn the region into a job mecca for logistics-related businesses.

The colleges, in conjunction with the Piedmont Triad Partnership business development group and several area companies, will develop a new clearinghouse of sorts whose sole focus will be on the logistics industry.

The center will be located at the new Northwest GTCC campus to be built on N.C. 68 near Piedmont Triad International Airport.

Broadly, the logistics industry includes the movement of goods through a system. It encompasses manufacturing, distribution, warehousing and transportation.

The Piedmont Triad Center for Logistics will provide training and other resources that prospective workers and businesses need.

Mary Rittling, president of Davidson County Community College, said the schools wanted to capitalize on the region’s growing transportation network. That network includes a series of new interstates and beltways and a new runway at PTI.

In addition, the Triad is halfway between two major ports in New York and Atlanta.

This area already has a large number of trucking, distribution and warehouse companies.

Also, FedEx will open its $300 million package sorting hub at the airport on a limited basis next week and more fully later this year.

That hub is expected to lure more companies that want to take advantage of rapid shipping.

Future economic opportunities here are in transportation and global logistics, Rittling said.

“We all have something to offer and if we could pitch it together, we could make it stronger,” she said.

“So we’re each going to bring a specific initiative to the table, so that we can deliver the business and industry the type of programs that they really need.”

Don Kirkman, chief executive officer and president of the Piedmont Triad Partnership, said a central resource center could help attract new businesses to the area.

Businesses would be able to get information from such sources as Davidson’s truck driving training program and UNCG’s Bryan School of Business and Economics. 

“It will ease their access to the range of possibilities that are available on the individual campuses,” Kirkman said.

GTCC President Don Cameron said UNCG students are making a business plan to detail potential costs and revenues of the center. It should be completed in August, he said.

The schools will reconvene with the business plan to better define future strategies.

The center could be open by 2011, Cameron said.

All of the schools would have space there for online learning, and two other buildings will house training for freight trucks and transportation systems.