Port Authority explores cold storage facility

A cold storage facility could become the latest business development coming to Lorain.

The Lorain Port Authority on Oct. 15 will unveil a plan and partnership with Tippmann Innovation, a Fort Wayne, Ind.-based company that specializes in largesize cold storage buildings.

The goal is to create “a master plan for a regional food distribution and processing hub that can reach half of the U.S. population in a day’s drive,” according to the Port.

It would sit in Lorain’s Riverbend Commerce Park on the city’s east side.

The Port and Tippman Innovation have created a conceptual drawing and a bird’s eye view of a building footprint for the storage space.

It could develop starting with more than 100,000 square feet of space and grow in two future phases.

“With increasing scarcity of quality refrigerated space, the need for new cold storage and processing space is escalating,” according to the Port. “The phased in flexibility this site has to offer, provides a highly customized construction schedule to accommodate multi-temperature space for small users up to large distributors and processors.

“The master plan can meet your needs from as small to 50,000 sf (square feet) or less up to 400,000 sf and larger, if needed.”

The refrigerated warehouses can store food, pharmaceuticals

and other products that need a temperature-controlled environment, said Brad Mullins, president of the Lorain Port board.

Mullins worked with Nick Pacitti and Tom Condon of Tippmann Innovation to consider the project in Lorain.

The Port staff hope to gauge the level of interest Oct. 15, he said.

They have invited people who work with area food and real estate businesses to promote the Riverbend Commerce Park.

“Who knows? It could be a catalyst to jumpstart that industrial parkway,” Mullins said.

Tippmann Innovation’s website includes project descriptions of massive refrigerated buildings around the country.

Among the most recent is the Armory Cold Storage facility in Worcester, Mass.

It is a 1 million cubic foot facility for Table Talk Pies, according to Tippman Innovation.

In September, the company announced it will build a 1.4 million cubic foot freezer expansion for Mattingly Cold Storage, a thirdgeneration, family-owned cold storage company in Melbourne, Fla.

“Who knows? It could be a catalyst to jumpstart that industrial parkway.” — Brad Mullins, president of the Lorain Port board