Arcadia Cold Enters Jacksonville With $87M Storage Project

Rendering of Jacksonville Cold Storage. Image courtesy of Arcadia Cold

Arcadia Cold has commenced the construction of Jacksonville Cold Storage, a 216,297-square-foot facility in Jacksonville, Fla. The project is slated for completion in early 2024.

In late 2022, the Jacksonville Business Journal reported that Jacksonville’s city council agreed to offer Arcadia a $2 million property tax rebate for the development, while JAX USA reported in October that Arcadia will invest $86.5 million in the refrigerated distribution facility.

Upon completion, the cold storage facility will include 30,254 pallet positions with a freezing capacity for more than 6 million pounds of product per week, with temperatures ranging from -10 degrees F to 38 degrees F. The project will feature ample dock space and doors to manage import, export and distribution services.

READ ALSO: Electric Vehicles Put a Charge in Industrial Growth

The facility will rise in the Imeson International Industrial Park, 9.2 miles from downtown Jacksonville, with access to Highway 17 and Interstate 95. The cold storage project is designed to support distribution activity through the Jacksonville Port Authority, which is 4.8 miles from the development site.

Last month, Arcadia signed an agreement to lease and operate Phoenix Cold Storage, a 293,000-square-foot industrial building currently under construction in El Mirage, Ariz. Last year, the company also broke ground on a cold storage facility in Hazleton, Pa., and two other facilities in Atlanta and Fort Worth, Texas.

Demand for cold storage assets remains strong

Driven by the pandemic-induced rise in e-commerce activity, demand for cold storage warehouses remains strong. This trend became evident in 2021, when total annual sales for this particular asset class in dense urban areas amounted to $2 billion.

Notable recent deals include Barber Partners and Bain Capital’s formation of a joint venture in May 2022, with plans to invest $500 million in the development of 15 cold storage facilities that would operate under the Chill Storage brand. Later in September, IDS Real Estate Group secured $124 million in post-close acquisition financing for its cold storage facility in Riverside, Calif., which traded for $225 million.

In March 2022, Bridge Industrial signed FreezPak to a full-building lease for its cold storage facility in South Florida, while the project was still underway.

A more recent deal was announced early this year in February, when Tiger Cool Express signed a lease/purchase agreement to acquire an industrial property that will host a 200,000-square-foot cold storage facility in Wallula, Wash.