Baldor Specialty Foods expanding into Philadelphia with USD 40 million cold storage center

Bronx, New York, U.S.A.-based Baldor Specialty Foods announced in November its plans to expand into Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with a USD 40 million (EUR 33.1 million) warehouse distribution center, according to a report from the Philadelphia Business Journal.

An importer and distributor of specialty and fine foods, Baldor has a network stretching across the U.S. Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions. Its proposed 224,000 square-foot warehouse distribution will span 13 acres in Northeast Philadelphia, a location that offers ideal access to its client base of restaurants, universities, and retailers such as Whole Foods Market.

In its search for the new site, Baldor wanted a location with a federal opportunity zone designation that was near freight rail lines. The location in Philadelphia will help the company grow its business within a roughly 100-mile radius of the city, and also give it room to roam into the Atlantic City and Jersey Shore markets, the Poconos, and west of the metropolitan area, the newspaper said.

“We will be slowly building the business out,” Baldor Branch Operations Vice President Glenn Messinger told the Philadelphia Business Journal.

Baldor paid USD 10 million (EUR 8.2 million) for the land, with Brian Hilger of Avison Young representing the seller, and Pat Green of CBRE Inc. representing Baldor. The move is the latest in the Bronx-based business’s 2020 growth strategy – in April, it acquired Brooklyn, New York-based Pierless Fish, after the latter declared bankruptcy on 23 December, 2019. According to court documents, Baldor purchased the company on 22 April for USD 450,000 (EUR 416,000) in a limited auction ordered by the judge presiding over Pierless’ bankruptcy proceedings.