A refrigerated warehouse building transaction in St. Louis, Missouri

Lease Transaction Announcement.

John Morrell Food Group leased 7,000 ft.² of refrigerated warehouse space from Sunfarm Food Service, Inc at 84 Produce Row, St. Louis Missouri 6310. Hawk Distribution Services LLC represented both parties in the transaction. Jim Cronin specializes in refrigerated building real estate brokerage.

John Morrell Food Group’s package meat division of Armour-Eckrich Meats was in need of refrigerated warehouse space with cooler storage temperatures and refrigerated dock space to accommodate their route delivery trucks. The 84 Produce Row facility was formerly occupied by Sunfarm Food Service, Inc. which recently located to a larger facility leaving the refrigerated food facility available for lease. The 7000 ft.² of food facility has refrigerated and multiple refrigerated rooms, dry warehouse space and a mezzanine office area for support personnel. The refrigerated dock has 4 truck dock doors and ample parking for the Armour Eckrich Meats’ fleet of refrigerated route trucks.

84 Produce Row is located in the St. Louis Produce Market. Most major metropolitan areas have produce market areas. Most metro produce markets are cooperatives which provide administrative support for common area maintenance, sanitation, building maintenance, security and other amenities to their members. These things are attractive to small and medium sized foodservice distributors, which allow the managers to focus on their business operations.

Jim Cronin is a refrigerated building real estate broker in St. Louis, Missouri Phone of 314-994-0577
 e-mail J.Cronin@hawkds.com  or website of   www.refrigerated-buildings.com

Refrigerated building- Analysis of St. Louis, Missouri building sale and building lease transactions.

An outline that applies in analyzing refrigerated building real estate sales.

This outline pertains only to potential prospect or customer base that are in need of refrigerated warehouse buildings. Refrigerated buildings are any industrial property that has more than 15% of the building's floor space capable of +42° to -10° warehouse storage temperature capabilities. Generally, of all refrigerated buildings 75% have freezer storage capabilities, and 25% of refrigerated buildings have cooler storage capabilities. Therefore the 75% of all prospects would need freezer warehouse storage capabilities and other 25% would need cooler warehouse space the prospect needs additional capacity. Transaction history on refrigerated building shows that 7 out of 10 real estate transactions are for leasing refrigerated space, and 3 are sale transactions. Probably the reason for so many lease transactions is that a company needs additional space for some interim period. In all industrial real estate transactions, 80 to 85% of sale or lease transactions are with local companies which are purchasing or leasing local building. The remaining 15 to 20% are regional or national companies that need a presence in that local market therefore they need to purchase or lease a local building. An example if the cooler warehouse building was for sale in St. Louis then the prospect base would be 25% of the St. Louis refrigerated market, and then if the building would be only for sale would leave 30% of those prospects which are "Ready, Willing and Able" to purchase a cooler building in the St. Louis market being a viable candidate for the St. Louis refrigerated building. Jim Cronin is a refrigerated building real estate broker from St. Louis, Missouri at 314-994-0577 or e-mail J.Cronin@hawkds.com       www.hawkds.com

Sale of a Bakery Building in St. Louis County, Missouri.

Sale of a Bakery Building in St. Louis County, Missouri. A food production building used for commercial making operations was sold on July 2, 2013. The 42,075 ft.² industrial building had a food production area and refrigerated warehouse space with cooler temperatures. There also was a freezer warehouse storage area. The food production facility had 2,720 ft.² of office space with an employee welfare area to accommodate employees in the commercial production of bread and pastry products. The building was located at 9769 Reavis Park , St. Louis County, Missouri 63123.The refrigerated food production facility was constructed in 1970 and situated on 2.59 acres. The freezer warehouse space addition was added in approximately 1990. The facility was listed by a real estate brokerage company in early 2012. The food production facility property was purchased by the Affton school district in July, 2012. The listed rate at the time the sale was $995,000 .The school district's intention in purchasing the refrigerated building was to use it as an annex to support the nearby high school. High School no longer had any more space to expand onto their existing building. It is not usual for the sale of refrigerated or food production buildings with freezer warehouse space or cooler to be sold to a user that does not require refrigeration capacities. The non refrigerated purchaser simply needed an industrial building located near their primary business operation for additional production capacity or additional warehouse space. Jim Cronin is a refrigerated building real estate broker from St. Louis at 314-994-0577 or e-mail J.Cronin@hawkds.com Jim was not involved in this real estate transaction.

Cooler warehouse storage shortage in St. Louis, Missouri.

                              1075 McDonough, Collinsville Illinois   28°warehouse storage temperature


Refrigerated food processors in St. Louis, Missouri have been challenged in the latter part of 2014 in finding any refrigerated storage space to accommodate their annual inventory build for the 2014 holiday season.

Certain food processing operations require a certain storage temperature called "high temperature freezer storage" which is a +28° storage temperature. The food product needs to be placed into storage at slightly below freezing which is 32° storage temperatures. Some food products do not freeze at the traditional 32° because of the contents in their ingredients. One example is horseradish which has a high sugar content, and the other is Hams which is high in salt.

However, this high-temperature freezer storage requires an insulated floor to prevent floor heaving from subsurface moisture, however the refrigeration equipment needs to have cooler capabilities. Most refrigerated warehouse floor space in refrigerated buildings requires 0° storage, or 36° storage. The freezer warehouse storage has one type of refrigeration equipment, and the warehouse cooler storage requires all different type of refrigeration equipment design. Therefore finding a refrigerated warehouse building in St. Louis with a floor designed for freezer warehouse usage, combined with refrigeration design for cooler warehouse usage is difficult to find.

 There was only one building available in the St. Louis market in the 2014 holiday storage season that had the desired 28° storage temperatures. This building was located 1075 McDonough Lake Road, Collinsville, Illinois. It was a 10,800 square-foot refrigerated building situated on 2 acres. Information on this 28° storage building is found at http://www.crelisting.net/P8332AD8w

Jim Cronin is a refrigerated building real estate broker from St. Louis at 314-994-0577 or e-mail J.Cronin@hawkds.com

Adding refrigerated warehouse space in a food facilities building.

Adding refrigerated or freezer warehouse space within a food facility building. Refrigerated food processing and refrigerated food distributors need additional cold storage space can convert part of their food facility building into freezer warehouse space. This requires modification of the existing dry warehouse space into freezer warehouse storage space. The modification is necessary because of the moisture in the soil underneath the cement of the dry warehouse floor will freeze, and then expand and eventually begin to raise the floor upwards. Installation of an under floor heating system is an extensive and costly modification to the food facilities building. The concrete from the original warehouse floor has to be completely removed. Then the installation of the in floor heating system is possible. The actual heat can come from an electrical heating system or from forced air ventilation. The electrical heating system is basically electrical heating tape within a specially designed pad. The forced air ventilation is basically PCV pipes that have ambient warehouse air circulated through the piping system. The electrical or forced air systems are underneath the 6 inch urethane insulation that is between the surface of the ground and the cement of the warehouse floor. When the conversion of the food facilities dry warehouse floor space into freezer warehouse floor space requires the installation of three components which are under floor heating system, specially designed urethane flooring insulation and new concrete. This will provide a stable protection from the expansion of subsurface moisture against the bottom of the new warehouse floor.Freezer warehouse services at the building are then at a larger capacity. Hawk Distribution Services LLC www.hawkds.com is a refrigerated building real estate broker familiar with adding freezer warehouse space in food facilities. Jim Cronin, broker 314-994-0577 or j.cronin@hawkds.com

St. Louis cold storage buildings and leasing of their freezer cooler space.

St. Louis cold storage buildings and freezer cooler warehouse space have been available primarily available for lease over the last 12 months. Freezer cooler buildings available for sale in St. Louis have been available in the outer portions of the St. Louis area. Why are cold storage buildings in St. Louis so hard to find?

Refrigerated warehouse space is often referred to as freezer cooler warehouse space. When more freezer or cooler storage is required for pallet storage it seems the best place would be at the company's present location. There is the option that to add additional freezer cooler storage space to the installation of modular insulated panels and in those cases Freon refrigeration condensing units and evaporators. The easiest solution to add cold storage space at current location to avoid entering into a lease for another freezer cooler building if one was available. There also was the cost of transportation and handling of freezer and cooler pallets if they were stored at a second location.

 The expansion of refrigerated warehouse space in an ambient or dry warehouse building through time allowed the percentage of refrigerated floor space to increase. However, whenever there is reduction in the inventory of refrigerated foods requiring cold storage temperatures then freezer cooler space is available for lease and that building.

Hawk Distribution Services, LLC www.hawkds.com has 28 years of experience as refrigerated building real estate brokers. Please contact Jim Cronin at 314-994-0577 or e-mail J.Cronin@hawkds.com to discuss your company's refrigerated building real estate needs.

Refrigerated Warehouse Company and Refrigerated Warehouse Buildings.

Often times there is confusion between what a refrigerated warehousing company and refrigerated warehouse building. For those not familiar with terminology of this niche of industrial real estate, it can often be frustrating because the two are completely different. A refrigerated warehouse building is an industrial warehouse facility that is capable of freezer and cooler warehouse storage temperatures. The product that is being stored requires that it be maintained in a frozen or a refrigerated temperature. Most of frozen and refrigerated products are either refrigerated food or food ingredients to be used in refrigerated foods. Freezer temperatures in refrigerated warehousing buildings are normally -10°F up to a +10°F. Cooler temperatures in a refrigerated building are usually +34° up to +45°. Ice cream storage and ice cream novelties require -15°F to -20°F. warehouse storage temperatures. A refrigerated warehouse building either been purchased or leased by a refrigerated food processor, or a refrigerated food distributor for the warehouse storage of their product. This is a privately or publicly owned company that is holding their refrigerated food products in a building that they own or lease. Simply stated; A private company in their own refrigerated building, selling refrigerated foods that they own to their customers. A refrigerated warehouse company is a business entity. A refrigerated warehouse company is in the business of storing and handling refrigerated food products that are owned by other companies. Refrigerated Warehouse Company is a type of business that is located in a refrigerated warehouse building and is storing frozen or refrigerated foods for other companies. Sometimes these warehouse companies are referred to as public refrigerated warehouse companies. Simply stated; A public refrigerated warehouse company is in the business of storing other companies refrigerated foods on a temporary or long-term basis. Refrigerated warehouse buildings are sold or are leased on a square foot basis. Refrigerated warehouse companies are sold on a multiple of their earnings from operations (Earnings Before Interest Taxes Depreciation Amortization- EBITDA). Typically a refrigerated warehouse company is sold at a higher price than refrigerated warehouse buildings. Therefore it is important to verify whether it was of business sale or a refrigerated real estate transaction when analyzing the value of any refrigerated warehouse building. Hawk Distribution Services LLC has 28 years of experience of leasing and selling refrigerated buildings. Hawk Distribution Services LLC also has experience in selling public refrigerated warehousing companies. Contact Jim Cronin at J.Cronin@hawkds.com or 314-994-0577.