Vertical Cold Storage Buys Indianapolis Firm

1414 SW St. Image courtesy of CommercialEdge

Vertical Cold Storage has acquired MWCold, a company which operates some 545,000 square feet in the Indianapolis area. The acquisition was sponsored by Platform Ventures.

The largest of the two assets is a two-story, 390,000-square-foot cold storage facility owned by MWCold, built in 1956 on a 13.3-acre site, according to CommercialEdge data. The multi-modal property features 33,000 pallet positions and 46 dock doors, along with blast freezing, export services and quick thaw capabilities. It is also dual rail-serviced by CSX and Norfolk Southern. Located at 1414 SW St., it is close to Interstate 70 and some 2 miles from downtown Indianapolis, as well as roughly 12 miles from Indianapolis International Airport.

The other building, owned by Lineage Logistics and leased by MWCold, spans 159,000 square feet and can handle multiple temperature zones, down to -20°F. It encompasses 19,600 pallet positions and 15 dock doors. It is located at 725 Pioneer Trace, in Pendleton, Ind., a small town in Indianapolis’ northeast. The property is near Interstate 69, about 31 miles from Indianapolis.

The locations of the two facilities enable two day or less service to 75 percent of U.S. and Canadian populations, according to Vertical Cold Storage.

Steady industrial fundamentals in the Midwest

Despite economic headwinds, the industrial market has retained its strong fundamentals, though it has shown signs of slowing down. Transaction activity in the first quarter of 2023 totaled $7.7 billion nationally, considerably lower than the $20.5 billion figure registered in the same period in 2022, a recent CommercialEdge report shows.

Metro Indianapolis reached a transaction volume of $151 million from January through March, at $152.6 per square foot.