If you started a company and made 96 cents during your first year in business, would you still be in business today?

Richard E. Allen started a business selling candy and supplies to retailers from the back seat of his father's car in 1947 in the small town of Kenton, Ohio. The business would later become a paper cup manufacturing firm known as Imperial Cup Corp. Allen's son, Richard S. Allen, is now the CEO of The Allen Group, a global logistics park developer that sprung from the success of Imperial.

If you are the Allen family of San Diego, one of the largest developers of logistics parks in the country, your answer would be "yes."

Richard Allen, CEO of The Allen Group, traveled to Atlanta last month to be a featured speaker at the annual conference of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties (NAIOP). While he spoke knowledgeably and at length about emerging trends in logistics space development around the world, he seemed most at home when talking about his family.

"My father started the family business, the R.E. Allen Company, in Kenton, Ohio, in 1947 and made 96 cents his very first year in business by selling candy," said Richard Allen, who now presides over an empire of rapidly expanding logistics parks in California, Texas, Kansas City and elsewhere. "Our original factory was established in 1968 as the Imperial Cup Corporation in Ohio. We even delivered our own products, vending cups, in our own trucks."

After selling the manufacturing business for cash in the late 1980s to Federal Paper Board (now owned by International Paper), the Allens looked to invest in another industry with their newfound stash of capital: the real estate business.

Buying up industrial parcels in Central and Southern California, the Allen family would eventually create a thriving logistics park on Interstate 99 in Visalia, as well as some prime tracks for industrial development in Bakersfield, Stockton, the Bay Area and even Reno, Nevada.

"We bought land in Del Mar at $5 per square foot at the intersection of 56th and Interstate 5 in the early 1990s," said Allen. "Today, that land goes for $80 a square foot."

They created the Intuit building in San Diego, along with 25 other major corporate and industrial facilities, largely made of tilt-up concrete, throughout the go-go days of the 1990s.

Richard S. Allen, CEO of The Allen Group

In 1997, The Allen Group portfolio of commercial real estate properties would become part of the Kilroy UPREIT transaction. But because Kilroy was not interested in the Central Valley, the Allens were not subject to any non-compete provisions in that region of the Golden State.

"We really began to get involved heavily in the development of large industrial parks in 2001," added Allen. "We created the International Trade and Transportation Center on 700 acres in Bakersfield, as well as the Mid-State 99 Distribution Center in Visalia."

From there, the Allens would go on to invest substantially in markets like Dallas and Kansas City. Just last month, The Allen Group broke ground on its first two industrial buildings in the Dallas Logistics Hub, the largest new logistics park in North America.

The buildings will provide more than 827,000 square feet of new industrial space in the Southern Dallas County park of 6,000 acres. The complex is master-planned for up to 60 million square feet of space for distribution, manufacturing, office and retail.

The park is adjacent to Union Pacific’s Southern Dallas Intermodal Terminal, a potential BNSF intermodal facility, four major highway connectors and the Lancaster Municipal Airport.

"We learned one thing and we learned it very well: if you control the land, you will control the market for the deal," Allen said. "We own the majority of the industrial land in Visalia, and we are bringing that same business model to Dallas and Kansas City."

So far, the business model is working quite well for the Allens. In Visalia, their tenants include VF, International Paper, JoAnn Fabrics and WorkFlow One. At the ITTC 90 miles south in Bakersfield, the Allens’ tenants include Target, State Farm Insurance and Formica.

Allen said his family recognized, earlier than most, the transition of the American economy from manufacturing to trade. "Manufacturing was 24 percent of the U.S. economy in 1970. By 2005, it was only 12 percent," he said. "With the advent of more efficient international trade markets, this has lowered production costs abroad."

As he looks into the future, Allen says he sees no shortage of demand for new industrial space across North America. "We will need larger ships, increased use of rail, the emergence of large distribution centers and the creation of more high-tech distribution centers," he noted. "Plus, with the $5.2-billion widening of the Panama Canal, there will be phenomenal growth in shipping throughout the Western Hemisphere."

Ron Starner, executive director of IAMC

There is a reason why Warren Buffett decided to invest billions of dollars into railroads, Allen said. "It’s called intermodalism. Our highways cannot continue to handle the volume of traffic."

As his company moves forward, it will continue to acquire land "in key markets close to the right facilities," he noted. "For example, we are looking at Florida right now, because that state is becoming much more strategic. Florida is going to be great."

Tennessee and Mexico are also poised to capitalize on the growth boom in logistics, he said.

It’s been a long road from small-town Ohio and making 96 cents during the company’s first year in business, but The Allen Group is poised now to ride the biggest wave in industrial plant growth that the world has ever seen.