Compass Cold Storage recently held a grand opening ceremony for its highly anticipated new cold storage complex in the Arkansas River Valley.
The facility near Fort Smith in Mulberry, Arkansas, features cutting-edge refrigeration and freezing technology, and offers cold storage opportunities for food wholesalers, retailers, and food manufacturing customers in central and northwest Arkansas, the company said.
State and local leaders, including Mulberry Mayor Gary Baxter, attended and toured the facility that will feature 142,160 sq. ft. and 18,500 pallet positions within the cold storage environment equipped with QFM In-Rack Freezing System. The facility can maintain temperatures ranging from 40 degrees F to minus 20 degrees F. QFM combines blast freezing technology with pallet racking. The system freezes pallets up to four times faster than traditional blast freezers with the ability to reduce energy consumption by as much as 50%.
Compass Cold owners Doug Bowen and Darren Winstead said the event marked the company’s completion of the first phase of a three-phase project to build a cold storage facility in Mulberry.
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“Working with the Ti Cold team has been a gratifying and smooth process,” Bowen said in a news release. “It has only been around a year from groundbreaking to grand opening, which is good for almost any type of new build project. But for a commercial project of this magnitude, that turnaround timeframe is nothing short of exceptional.
“We are so pleased with how this has come together. We have already broken ground on Phase 2 of the project, with completion scheduled for early fall of this year.”
Completion of the second phase is scheduled to be finished by late summer and will include additional freezer and dock space, bringing the project total to about $50 million. A third phase still is in the planning stage, owners said.
Baxter said the company will have a “significant” economic impact for the city. “This is what I call the cornerstone for our industrial park because it is the largest facility, and it is very prominently visible from the highway. The access is so very, very good right off of Interstate 40 at Exit 20,” he said.
Others who spoke during the grand opening included Reps. Chad Puryear (R-Hindsville) and Charlene Fite (R-Van Buren), and Sen. Jim Petty (R-Van Buren).
“Any time we at Ti Cold can help fill critical food storage capacity demands within a region, we feel great about the accomplishment,” said Sam Tippmann, president of Ti Cold, which developed and built the facility.
