Industrial Development Briefs: NS, CPKC

Norfolk Southern will serve Anderson-DuBose Company’s new cold-storage distribution facility in Jacksonville, Fla.-based Westlake Industrial Park (pictured). (NS Image)

Norfolk Southern (NS) is selling property in Jacksonville, Fla., for the development of a $60 million rail-served food storage and distribution facility. Also, temperature-controlled warehouser and distributor NewCold is investing C$222 million in a new Southern Alberta food storage facility, to be served by Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC).

NS

The Anderson-DuBose Company, Inc., food-service distribution company that serves McDonald’s and Chipotle locations across the Eastern U.S., is under contract to acquire a 33-acre NS-owned site (Westlake Site 34B) for the development of a 160,000-square-foot, rail-served ambient and cold-storage distribution facility that will support McDonald’s restaurants across the southeastern U.S., according to an April 25 NS report. Westlake Site 34B, the Class I said, is one of a few remaining sites located within Westlake Industrial Park, which is served exclusively by an NS main line.

Anderson-Dubose’s $60 million project is expected to create 109 jobs and generate more than 160 carloads annually for NS. The distributer is based in Ohio and is that state’s largest minority-owned business. It currently operates warehouses in Lordstown, Ohio, and Rochester, N.Y., and has provided paper and food supplies to more than 650 McDonald’s restaurants in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, and West Virginia for more than 30 years. In 2021, McDonald’s named Anderson-DuBose its U.S. Supplier of the Year.

“Anderson-DuBose appreciates Norfolk Southern’s commitment to this joint growth opportunity for both of our companies,” Anderson-DuBose Chief Operating Officer Mike Boddy said. “By expanding our footprint into Jacksonville, we can better meet the burgeoning demand for cold and dry food service storage in the Southeast and revolutionize distribution support operations for our valued customers.”

“At Norfolk Southern, we are proud to play a pivotal role in facilitating smart and sustainable growth opportunities for our rail network and our esteemed customers,” NS Vice President Business Development and First and Final Mile Markets Stefan Loeb added. “By leveraging our extensive real estate assets, we are not only enhancing our operational capabilities, but we are also fostering economic development in the regions we serve and lowering our national supply chain’s carbon footprint.”

NS reported that it helped customers avoid more than 29,497 metric tons of carbon dioxide in Florida last year, which equates to a 70% reduction when compared with truck emissions, and is equal to more than 547,000 trucks removed from the highway per year.

CPKC

With support from Invest Alberta and a C$2.1 million grant from the government of Alberta, NewCold will invest C$222 million to develop a Coaldale, Alberta-based food storage facility, it reported April 29. The facility is expected to create up to 200 jobs during construction, and more than 50 new jobs in the province’s agri-food sector upon completion in 2025.

NewCold said it is also investing to improve CPKC rail connectivity “to give businesses ready access to export their products with ease and security”; the investment will go into municipal rail lines “to develop Coaldale into an export hub.”

The new warehouse will use “proprietary software and technology to ensure food safety and quality, while being 50% more energy efficient than traditional cold stores,” according to NewCold, which noted that it is “poised to initiate construction, acquire equipment, and start hiring immediately, with the goal of having more than 50 employees on-site by the end of 2026.”

“We recognize Alberta’s growing importance in North America’s food supply chain, so developing a facility in the province is a key part of our strategic global expansion,” NewCold Founder and CEO Bram Hage said. “NewCold is committed to building a better food supply chain that is more resilient and efficient. Our new state-of-the-art facility will bring advanced food logistics to Alberta, ultimately helping our customers serve theirs and benefiting consumers.”

“Announcing our automated cold store in one of Canada’s largest and fastest-growing food production areas marks an exciting milestone of NewCold’s expansion in the North American market,” added Jonas Swarttouw, NewCold Executive Vice President Commercial and Chairman in North America. “We are grateful for the excellent collaboration from our Alberta and Coaldale partners in making this new advanced storage facility a reality. We are proud to offer the latest automated cold storage innovations and technology to support food shippers in the region with operations beginning in 2025.”

“Collaboration among Alberta’s business-friendly agencies was key to NewCold’s final decision, with Coaldale, Invest Alberta, and the Province pitching in to help the company bring its vision to life,” Invest Alberta CEO Rick Christiaanse said.