Lambert Trucking excitedly buys Spitz warehouse
Many saw the closure of Spitz warehouse in south Medicine Hat as another dark cloud in 2016, a sign of failing economy and yet another for sale sign on the landscape.
This week, Dwayne Lambert sees a blank canvass near Highway No. 3 and the Medicine Hat Regional Airport.
His company, Lambert Tucking, has acquired the 2,700 square-meter (250,000-squarefoot) warehouse on Holsom Road to become its new terminal.
“It’s prime-prime in my mind,” said Lambert on Monday, citing the proximity to Highway 3, the Medicine Hat Regional Airport and further north, access to the Trans-Canada Highway.
“That’s where you want to be when you’re trucking and warehousing. There’s limited warehousing space in this town, and I think we’ve secured some of the best.”
He’s now seeking out contracts for specialized service from the location. As a former certified food storage facility, it could be put back to that use, but Lambert isn’t ruling out more general shipping traffic.
“It’s a truck terminal-slashdistribution centre in my mind,” he said. “There’s nothing written in stone but there’s a lot of interest in the works.”
He is also seeking to take over some supply contracts for local companies working with out-oftown firms and storing goods in other centres.
“We hope to streamline some of that,” said Lambert.
The grand opening of the facility in 1999 was touted as a foot forward for value-added food processing sector in the province. Then premier Ralph Klein snipped the ceremonial ribbon.
It remained the distribution centre after Bow Island-based Spitz was acquired by Pepsico about 10 years ago, but the conglomerate ended the lease and consolidated operations in Bow Island last year.
The building had been listed with a sale price of $2.9 million but Lambert won’t disclose final terms between himself and Spitz-founder Tom Droog, who had retained the building.
Lambert’s former terminal and land in Brier Park also has a new owner he said.
While the move is not an expansion, it will allow Lambert to offer some new services.
The Holsom Road building is about the same square footage but in a newer, better, more flexible building, he said.
The layout at Holsom Road also includes the possibility to convert onequarter of the space to cold storage. That would leave about 180,000 square feet of general storage.
Initial investment will only include some fencing, some new doors, security measures and replacing signs on the facility.
“There’s a great big sunflower on it now,” said Lambert. “We’re going to see what we can do with that.”