by Dennis Dalman
editor@thenewsleaders.com
Pat Lynch is going to have a very busy 2015.
Not only was he elected as a Sartell city council member in the Nov. 4 election, but he will also oversee a brand-new building for his company, Granite Logistics Services.
Lynch said he is pleased voters decided to give him another term on the council. He served as a council member previously from January 2007 to December 2010. He is also happy about the new 13,200 square-foot building, which is now under construction at 705 23rd St. S., just behind Fitness Evolution (formerly Gold’s Gym).
The new building should open, weather and construction schedule permitting, on or about May 1, Lynch noted.
Granite Logistics Services, which currently employs 40 people, is an agent for Trinity Logistics, headquartered in Seaford, Del. The company is called a logistics-solutions provider. Granite Logistics specializes in working out logistics and schedules for flatbed-truck and over-dimensional transportation in North America.
“We have a large base of customers who span a wide range of industries,” Lynch said. “Our customers take comfort in knowing we provide unique supply-chain solutions and will deliver on expectations and promises made.”
Granite Logistics has already become Trinity’s number-one agent.
The company’s success is not surprising because Lynch and his employees had won kudos and awards for their previous company, which provided the same kind of logistical transportation options. It was called Payne Lynch and Associates and operated at its Sartell location, next to Highway 15, from 1996 to 2006. That was the year Lynch sold the company to the firm of CH Robinson, which continues the business in the Northwest Professional Center near the Sartell Medical Campus. As part of the purchase agreement, Lynch agreed not to open a similar business for a five-year period. That contract-mandated period had long passed when Lynch decided to open a business again three years ago. The business grew so rapidly, a new building became a necessity.
The one-story building, with massive glass windows on the north and south sides, will have two sections – one for operations, the other for sales, with other areas for conferences and collaborations. The structure will have plenty of room for up to 120 employees, and Lynch said he plans to have that many employees by the end of the next decade, if not much sooner.
“The business takes a lot of coordination, a lot of teamwork,” he said. “We are helping (logistically) to move loads to many different places, one truck at a time. Many of our customers are repeat customers.”
Lynch graduated in 1988 with a bachelor’s degree in management from St. John’s University. He has served for many years in many volunteer capacities, including (besides being a city council member) a board member of Plaza Park Bank in Waite Park; a board member of the CentraCare Health System; a board member of the Good Samaritan Fund; and for six years a board member of Catholic Charities.
This is an artist’s conception of Granite Logistics Services building now under construction in Sartell. The architect is Negen Architects of St. Cloud; the builder is Strack Companies of Sartell.
