New cold-storage facility in Windsor breaks ground

Editor’s note: This story has been corrected to reflect that Lineage operates a global network of facilities that provide more than 2 billion cubic feet of capacity.

WINDSOR — High winds drove participants of the Lineage Logistics groundbreaking indoors, but just as well. They wanted to make sure the story they had to tell wasn’t swept away like the dirt swirling around the company’s new logistics site in east Windsor on Tuesday.

The story: Lineage Logistics LLC, a Michigan-based company, will build a massive cold-storage facility for JBS USA Holdings Inc. for storage of meat products, then use rail provided by OmniTRAX’s Great Western Railroad to ship that meat to west coast markets and, via seaports, to international markets. 

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The 200,000-square-foot facility will include six crane aisles to handle the frozen products, 22 truck docks, and 21,000 pallet positions for storage in the automated freezer section of the plant. When the product is ready to be shipped, all of it will be loaded onto well cars, also known as double stack rail cars, and moved to connections on either the Union Pacific Railroad or Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway.

Lineage operates a global network of more than 400 facilities totaling more than 2 billion cubic feet of capacity.

JBS, which signed a 15-year renewable contract to have exclusive use of the Lineage facility, will truck in its products from its Greeley production plant and from multiple other production facilities in the western United States, said Mark Conklin, one of multiple Lineage executives attending the event. The products will be flash frozen in “blast cells,” then moved to the cold storage part of the facility. While the blast cells will be human operated — 80 jobs are anticipated — the cold-storage area will all be automated. Pallets will be placed robotically and called out for shipment the same way.

Victory Unlimited Construction LLC, an Indianapolis-based contractor that has built multiple logistics facilities for Lineage, will use a somewhat unusual method in the construction of the facility. The pallet racks themselves will form the structural steel of the facility, instead of simply being installed within the building. 

Tim Smith, chief commercial officer for Lineage, said the new facility fits well within the company’s mission of “feeding the world and eliminating food waste.” He touted the rail aspects of the project. “We’ll be moving a lot by rail, which is a more efficient movement of product,” he said.

Dean Piacente, CEO of OmniTRAX, later cited the statistic that rail is capable of moving a ton of product 480 miles on one gallon of fuel. “This project will have global reach and generational impact,” he said.

Smith said Lineage will be moving 500 railcars annually from the facility. Conklin said once it’s fully operational, they’ll be loading nine to 12 rail cars a week. 

“To do this the right way, we needed to partner with OmniTRAX,” Smith said. It’s part of the company’s social responsibility, he said.

Tim Schellpeper, CEO of JBS USA, who lives in Windsor, said the plant demonstrates the company’s commitment to Colorado. 

“We’re focused on producing high-quality, safe food. This facility will strengthen our food supply system,” he said.

Smith said that Lineage has a long relationship with JBS in other parts of the country. Lineage has what it calls a “public warehouse” in Greeley, which JBS uses in part, but so do other food producers in the region. The Windsor cold-storage facility will be exclusively for JBS.