Find Out If Your Cross-Dock Site Pencils Before the LOI
Generate a cross-dock distribution park on your parcel, with buildings from 550k to 800k sf, truck courts on both sides and a perimeter truck loop. Know the building area and dock count before you commit capital.
Will a Cross-Dock Distribution Center Fit My Site?
TestFit is real estate feasibility software that generates site plans on your parcel and calculates what they yield. For cross-dock distribution, the answer comes down to three things that are hard to judge from a parcel map.
Two full truck courts
Docks on both long sides mean a full truck court and trailer parking on each side. The site has to be deep enough for the building plus both courts.
Big boxes leave little slack
At 550k to 800k sf per building, a few hundred feet of frontage or an odd property line decides whether the site holds one building or two.
Trucks need their own loop
A perimeter truck loop keeps trailers moving and away from car parking, but it takes land the building could have used.
From Your Parcel to a Deal You Can Underwrite
Start from the cross-dock park your team would build, fine-tune it to your standards, and finish with one model that holds the site, the plan, the tabulation and the costs.
Your parcel and its constraints
- Site boundary: pick the parcel from built-in parcel data with current owner info, draw it, enter metes and bounds, or import a KML/KMZ file
- Setbacks and frontage: front, side and rear setbacks set to the parcel edges
- Zoning: FAR, building and impervious coverage, height limits and parking ratios, pulled in for your parcel so you don't have to dig through the zoning code
- Easements: areas the layout keeps buildings out of
- Site conditions: flood zones, wetlands and topography from Site Intelligence
Every layout starts inside your site's real constraints.
Your product, fine-tuned on the site
- Starts as a cross-dock park: 1-story buildings, 36 ft clear, 5 sizes from 550k to 800k sf
- Truck courts on both long sides, trailer and car parking, perimeter truck loop
- Then edit building sizes, docks, courts, parking and circulation to match your product
You see the building your team would propose, on your parcel.
A source of truth for the deal
- Site plan geometry: buildings, courts, parking and drives drawn to the parcel
- Tabulation for this product: building sf, dock doors, trailer and car stalls against what's required, site coverage and FAR
- Earthwork: cut and fill for the layout
- Financials: the geometry turned into development costs, revenue and returns
- Shareable results: a link or PDF report for your team, partners and other stakeholders
You know whether the deal works, with numbers to back it.
TestFit is transformational. We've shaved days off of our analysis by using the AI capabilities of this software, which allows us to make smarter decisions faster.
Cross-Dock Site Planning FAQ
What is a cross-dock distribution center?
A distribution building with dock doors on both long sides. Freight is received on one side and shipped from the other, with a truck court on each side.
What is the difference between a cross-dock and a front-load warehouse?
A front-load warehouse has docks and its truck court on one side only. A cross-dock has docks and truck courts on both long sides, so it needs a deeper site but moves freight straight through the building.
How much land does a cross-dock warehouse need?
Site depth matters more than acreage. The parcel has to fit the building plus a truck court and trailer parking on both long sides, and room for truck circulation. Load your parcel in TestFit with this layout to see how many buildings fit.
What is a perimeter truck loop?
A drive that circles the site so trucks can reach every truck court and leave without crossing car parking. It uses more land than serving trucks from the street, and it keeps truck and car traffic apart.
Can I change the layout after it generates?
Yes. Start from this layout, then edit buildings, docks, parking and circulation in TestFit. The site plan and yield recalculate as you go.
Find it in TestFit
Test This Layout on Your Next Industrial Site
Load your parcel and get the site plan, yield, and costs in one place.