Deep frozen storage facility opens in Greenfield
Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe Now-
(photo courtesy of Progressive Logistics)
-
(photo courtesy of Progressive Logistics)
-
(photo courtesy of Progressive Logistics)
Greenfield-based Progressive Logistics is opening a 300,000-square-foot deep frozen storage facility in the Mount Comfort Logistics Center on Friday. The building, developed by Ambrose Property Group in Indianapolis, will provide frozen food storage for the company’s new PL Cold division and could employ up to 100 people.
And Doug Hayes, co-founder and CEO of both Progressive Logistics and PL Cold, says they’re already looking at growth both in Greenfield and beyond.
Hayes told Inside INdiana Business the growing need for frozen storage necessitated the new facility.
“We were starting to hear from our customers and potential customers of the need for freezer. So it wasn’t just a climate control where they needed at those temperatures. They’re looking for freezer requirements,” Hayes said. “This market has been expanding the need, and we figured it was a good time to go ahead and put up our facility.”
Ambrose began construction on the facility in October 2022, but is not disclosing its financial investment in the project. Progressive said at that time it was investing about $3 million to install the necessary equipment.
The new building complements Progressive Logistics’ existing, 506,000-square-foot, climate-controlled warehouse next door in Greenfield, as well as another facility in Plainfield.
The two climate-controlled warehouses, Hayes said, are kept at less than 70 degrees and a humidity level less than 50%, but they don’t have freezer capabilities.
PL Cold says the new facility is divided into three separate chambers, creating the flexibility to adjust to different temperatures to meet the needs of customers. It also utilizes a non-hazardous synthetic refrigerant instead of the traditional ammonia-based system.
The warehouse includes 40 dock doors and more than 38,000 pallet positions. The company said the facility was designed to ensure Safe Quality Foods, Organic, and American Institute of Baking certification for customers.
“At Ambrose, we are all about putting our clients’ needs first, and in the food and cold storage market, that means integrating modern technology and flexibility into our developments to allow them to meet the varying requirements of each of their customers,” Ambrose Vice President of Development and National Build-to-Suit Officer Scott Sanders said in a news release. “We worked very closely with PL Cold to ensure the finished facility would meet the industry demand of both today and tomorrow.”
Progressive Logistics currently employs about 60 workers at its two other facilities. The new facility is opening with between 10-15 employees and will ramp up to a minimum of 50 workers when it is fully operational by then end of 2024.
Hayes said depending on PL Cold’s customer profile that employment number could increase toward 100 workers.
And the company is already looking toward growth even now as the new facility opens up. Hayes said he and Ambrose are in discussions to expand the warehouse by another 100,000 square feet, which could bring an additional 12,000 pallet positions to the operation.
Hayes also noted that the company is searching for a location to build two new facilities in the Plainfield area to duplicate the Greenfield operations. He said the model of having a frozen storage facility next to a climate-controlled warehouse is somewhat unique, but creates benefits for both the company and its customers.
“We’re talking with a few customers right now [who] will bring us finished product for the freezer, unload their trailers, drive over next door, and pick up their ingredients, which will then be shuttled back to their production facilities. And then that cycle will just continue.”
The location of the Greenfield facilities, right along I-70, also creates benefits for the company, Hayes said. The company said the proximity to key interstate routes allows for cold storage within a day’s drive of most of the U.S. population.