RL Cold Kicks Off Minneapolis Cold Storage Facility

This project is taking shape inside a 205-acre industrial park.

Property inside the Airlake Industrial Park, Minneapolis.
RL Cold’s Lakeville project involves the construction of several access roads. Image courtesy of RL Cold

RL Cold, a division of RealtyLink LLC, has broken ground on a 292,000-square-foot design-build cold storage facility in Lakeville, Minn., near Minneapolis. Ware Malcomb provided design services and Graycor Construction Co. serves as general contractor. Completion is expected next spring.

The Lakeville City Council approved the project’s final plans in May 2023. The development also involves the construction of 215th Street—an extension of County Road 70—and 220th Street, as well as Galway Lane, to serve as access drives.


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Designed to achieve LEED certification, the facility will have 50-foot clear heights, 70-foot-deep truck docks and up to 34,000 pallet positions. Plans also call for 98 employee parking spots, 61 truck spots and 38 truck dock doors.

Spanning 28 acres, the project will take shape inside the 205-acre Airlake Industrial Park. Interstate 35 is 4 miles away, with downtown Minneapolis roughly 20 miles north. Americold owns a 359,914-square-foot cold storage facility within the same campus.

Minneapolis-St. Paul’s supply pipeline falters

The Minneapolis-St. Paul’s industrial supply pipeline encompassed 3.7 million square feet in the first quarter of this year, according to a Colliers report. The amount marked a decline from the previous quarter, which bolstered 5.8 million square feet, and an even steeper fall year-over-year compared to the 7 million square feet underway in 2023’s first quarter.

Solugen contributed to the current pipeline by breaking ground on a 500,000-square-foot biomanufacturing facility in Marshall, Minn., just last month. The firm specializes in providing low-carbon organic acids used in agriculture, energy, water treatment and personal care. Completion is expected in the fall of 2025.