Stonemont and Martin Brower
Atlanta, Ga.-headquartered Stonemont is a private real estate investment firm. Its founders and managing principals have a combined track record of more than 60 years of experience and have invested US$20 billion in a range of asset classes. Stonemont currently has more than US$5 billion in assets under management.
Stonemont and BGO coordinated the site acquisition, design and development of the Oshawa cold-storage facility. Panattoni Development Company Canada was the local development manager and Nexrock Design Build Inc. was the general contractor.
Rosemont, Ill.-headquartered Martin Brower was founded in 1934 and has become a supply chain operator for some of the world’s leading food brands. It has operated in Canada since 1972 and serves as the sole supplier for the McDonald’s restaurant chain across the country. This new facility will service more than 200 McDonald’s locations across eastern Ontario.
What the Oshawa facility offers
Ground was broken for the Oshawa build-to-suit project in the second quarter of 2023. Although the opening was only recently announced, Martin Brower has been operating in the 172,034-square-foot Northwood Business Park facility since late 2024.
“It varies based on size and complexity, like any project, but if a regular ambient temperature warehouse takes eight to 10 months to build, a cold storage project is generally 11 to 15 months,” Rivest explained. “And if it’s very large and has automation and other things that are more technically complex, then it could push a little farther than that to be completely operational.”
The building is located on 16.86 acres at 650 Conlin Rd. W. It offers 40-foot clear heights, 37 dock doors, two drive-in doors, 130 trailer parking spaces and 125 car parking spaces. The facility will bring 175 jobs to the community.
“The refrigeration system is CO2-based, which is much more environmentally friendly and also very efficient for energy usage,” Rivest said.
Building new facilities is the better way to go
A lot of older cold-storage facilities are inefficient and there’s a need for modernization to keep up with current needs and trends. While they can be retrofitted and upgraded, or new additions can be made to existing buildings where space allows, Rivest thinks it generally makes more sense to build new ones wherever possible so the highest standards can be achieved.
“We don’t necessarily think of frozen foods as especially healthy, but the reality is that there is quite a bit of advancement in freezing technologies and in the ability to flash-freeze foods — whether they be proteins, fruits, vegetables, et cetera — to maintain all their nutritional value and be stored and then ultimately packaged and sold in a pretty economical way,” he said.
BGO Cold Chain plans to invest further in Canadian facilities, but Rivest said he couldn’t be more specific about future projects at this point.
Source RENX.ca. Click here for the full story.
