South Dakota-based Vertical Cold Storage, a developer and operator of temperature-controlled distribution centers, recently acquired three public refrigerated warehouses from United States Cold Storage.
The facilities are located in Medley, Fla., Marshville, N.C., and La Vista, Neb.
Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Vertical is funded by Kansas City-based real estate investment firm Platform Ventures.
“These acquisitions give us a strong foothold in some of the fastest growing yet underserved regions of the country and support our rapidly expanding protein business, including meat, poultry, and seafood,” said Curt Mastbergen, president of Vertical Cold Storage. “As public facilities, we plan to build the customer base at each location by introducing new technology, automation and best practices designed to dramatically improve customer performance.
“The purchase also complements our greenfield development efforts.”
The newly purchased facilities feature:
- Medley: 6.7 million cubic feet with 29 dock doors near Miami. It features temperature zones ranging from minus 10 degrees F to 45 F, import/export, and repack services.
- La Vista: 3 million cubic feet with 31 dock doors near Omaha. It features temperature zones ranging from minus 10 F to 45 F, import/export, and is ASI certified.
- Marshville: 2.3 million cubic feet with 16 dock doors near Charlotte. It features temperature zones ranging from minus 10 F to 45 F, blast freezing to minus 30 F, export, and is USDA and FDA certified.
Officials said the deal supports U.S. Cold Storage’s strategic shift toward “automation, innovation, and logistics services,” while Vertical is expanding in key Midwest and Southeast markets.
“Our goal is to provide a greater level of investment in core market facilities where we can automate, create additional scale, and expand our industry-leading COLDshare Consolidation programs,” said Larry Alderfer, U.S. Cold Storage president and CEO. “United States Cold Storage is excited to reinvest all these proceeds and we have recently announced the further expansion of our Tulare, Calif., facility and the purchase of an additional 39 acres in Turlock, Calif., for future expansion.
“We are also well into planning stages for automated expansions in our Midwest, Northeast, and Texas markets.”
