A massive automated cold-storage facility in Plainville has shut down and is now being marketed for sale after owner Americold Realty Trust and a subsidiary of Stop & Shop parent Ahold Delhaize USA ended their agreement involving the property.
The facility at 24 Northwest Drive was developed to store and distribute frozen products for Ahold Delhaize’s Northeast grocery brands, including Stop & Shop and Hannaford.
Americold and ADUSA Distribution agreed July 21 to terminate their arrangement involving the Plainville facility and a similar property in Pennsylvania, according to a regulatory filing. Americold said the Plainville facility would be idled immediately, except for short-term ice production, and marketed for sale.
The property has now been listed for sale by CBRE, which is marketing it either individually or together with Americold’s facility in Mountville, Pennsylvania.
No asking price has been disclosed.
The Plainville property encompasses approximately 329,199 square feet and is listed as vacant, according to CBRE’s marketing materials. A second-phase expansion is nearing completion.
The sale marks a major turn for a project announced in 2020 as part of Ahold Delhaize’s effort to expand its grocery distribution network. At the time, Ahold Delhaize announced plans for a 500,000-square-foot automated cold-storage warehouse in Plainville that was expected to be completed by the fourth quarter of 2022.
The building now being marketed is a highly specialized cold-storage facility constructed in 2022 and 2023.
It includes a 135-foot-high automated storage and retrieval system and refrigeration infrastructure with separate areas capable of maintaining temperatures of minus 10 and minus 20 degrees Fahrenheit, according to CBRE. Its automation was designed to break down incoming pallets into individual cases, sequence products and rebuild mixed pallets for shipment to stores.
The property also has about 10.5 megawatts of power capacity, including 8.5 megawatts from the utility grid and 2 megawatts from an on-site Bloom Energy natural-gas fuel cell system.
CBRE is marketing the facility to potential users that include grocery retailers, wholesale grocers, food manufacturers, food-service distributors, third-party logistics operators and e-commerce companies.
The brokerage is also highlighting the property’s location along the Interstate 84 corridor. Its marketing materials estimate that more than 15 million consumers are within a two-hour drive of the facility, including the Boston and New York metropolitan areas.
When the project was announced in 2020, Ahold Delhaize described plans for a 500,000-square-foot facility. CBRE’s current marketing materials list approximately 329,199 square feet and say a second-phase expansion is nearing completion.
In its regulatory filing, Americold said the Plainville and Pennsylvania facilities had a combined net book value of approximately $455 million as of June 30.
Americold disclosed it expects to take a noncash impairment charge of approximately $305 million to $320 million on the two properties, based on independent appraisals and its assessment of their market value. The company said it is pursuing a sale but could consider other options, including continued ownership or redevelopment.
