Lineage Logistics, a Colton, California-headquartered warehousing and logistics company owned by private equity firm Bay Grove, will break ground on a 340,000 square foot cold storage distribution warehouse in Charleston County, South Carolina, USA, in July. The project is expected to create more than 80 jobs when completed.
“Specific customer needs and comprehensive infrastructure in the world-class Port of Charleston makes this key logistics hub an important addition to our other port-centric facilities on the East Coast. Our team has been working in partnership with state and local officials for over a year to bring a significant investment and new jobs to the Charleston community. The ease of doing business has been impressive and will accelerate completion of this facility,” said Bill Hendricksen, chief executive officer of Lineage Logistics.
“Distribution and logistics companies represent one of the fastest-growing industries in our state today,” said South Carolina Secretary of Commerce Bobby Hitt. “This will be a great addition to the state’s logistics sector, and we are pleased that Lineage is bringing this project to fruition.”
The company will locate its new facility in the Palmetto Commerce Park, at 7748 Palmetto Commerce Parkway in North Charleston. It will have immediate access to the Port of Charleston and rail links providing regular service on Norfolk Southern switches.
The site of the proposed warehouse is the exact location where Millard Refrigerated Services said in late 2012 it would invest $42 million in a cold storage distribution center that would focus on shipping meat products to overseas markets, according to a report in The Post and Courier of Charleston.
In March of this year Millard was acquired by Lineage, which more than doubled the purchasing company’s storage capacity and made it the second largest operator of public refrigerated warehouses in the world. Then in May, Lineage acquired Loop Cold Storage in Texas and Oneida Cold Storage in Colorado, further expanding its national cold storage footprint to over 544 million cubic feet of space within a network of 102 facilities in 21 states.
The planned distribution warehouse in Charleston will have the latest technology in high capacity blast freezing and offer new transportation solutions to provide customers a highly efficient solution to export proteins to overseas markets. It will also include new design features that expedite domestic consumer access to imported products.
“The South Carolina Ports Authority (SCPA) and maritime community are pleased to welcome Lineage to Charleston. The Port is experiencing strong growth in the refrigerated container business, the addition of Lineage’s cold storage and blast freezing facility provides Charleston with the increased capabilities necessary to meet the needs of this important cargo segment,” said Jim Newsome, president and ceo of the SCPA.
Just two weeks earlier, on May 29, New Orleans Cold Storage (NOCS) announced that it would more than double the size of its existing storage space at the Port of Charleston and increase blast freezing capacity by 100%. The NOCS expansion will represent an investment of more than $14 million, of which the SPCA has approved up to a $12 million contribution to the project.
