Detail Blog

Plymouth Poultry Secures -20°F Cold Storage Facility in Kent

Sumber: Newmark

Plymouth Poultry Secures Rare -20°F Cold Storage Capacity in the Puget Sound Region

Apa yang telah terjadi

Newmark has arranged a 71,613-square-foot cold storage industrial lease for Plymouth Poultry Company at 18404 72nd Avenue South in Kent, Washington.

The property is located in Yellowstone Industrial Park within the North Kent Valley, between the Ports of Seattle and Tacoma and close to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. This position gives the future occupant access to important regional port, airport and road-distribution infrastructure.

The building was previously occupied by Dreyer’s Ice Cream and contains freezer infrastructure capable of maintaining temperatures as low as -20°F, equivalent to approximately -29°C. The facility also includes about 10,000 kaki persegi ruang kantor, 13 dock-high loading doors, a fenced yard and a combination of freezer and dry warehouse areas.

The transaction is notable because the facility gives Plymouth Poultry the opportunity to control its own freezer operation rather than relying exclusively on third-party cold storage providers. Newmark said several qualified groups competed for the property because purpose-built or already equipped freezer facilities remain difficult to secure in the region.

Plymouth states that its existing quality system includes third-party audits, pelacakan banyak, electronic warehouse management, temperature monitoring and a HACCP control plan. The new lease therefore adds physical cold-storage infrastructure to an operating model that already emphasizes product integrity and traceability.

Cara Kerjanya

A dedicated freezer warehouse allows a food distributor to manage receiving, penyimpanan, inventory allocation and outbound preparation under its own operating procedures.

At approximately -20°F, the facility can provide a substantial temperature margin below the commonly used -18°C or 0°F frozen-storage benchmark. That margin can support stable frozen operations during normal door openings, product movement and short-term changes in refrigeration load. The exact operating setpoint will still depend on the products stored, customer specifications and Plymouth Poultry’s validated procedures.

The facility’s freezer and dry-storage combination can support more than one part of the distribution workflow. Frozen products can remain inside the low-temperature zone, while packaging materials, selected shelf-stable items or operational supplies can be held in the dry warehouse area. Separating these functions avoids consuming expensive refrigerated volume with products that do not require low-temperature storage.

Itu 13 dock-high loading doors can support simultaneous receiving and dispatch activity, but dock capacity alone does not guarantee cold chain integrity. The operator will need appointment control, pre-cooled vehicles, rapid door operation, disciplined staging and procedures that prevent frozen products from remaining unnecessarily in uncontrolled areas.

A typical inbound process may include trailer inspection, verifikasi segel, reefer setpoint review, pemeriksaan suhu, lot confirmation and product transfer into the appropriate freezer location. The outbound process may include order picking, pallet verification, loading-temperature checks, trailer pre-cooling and release of shipment records to the carrier or customer.

Plymouth’s use of electronic warehouse management and lot tracking can help connect physical product movements with inventory records. In a well-integrated operation, each pallet or case can be associated with supplier information, nomor lot, receipt date, storage location, customer order and dispatch event. Temperature monitoring provides an additional record of the storage environment.

The building’s previous use as an ice-cream facility indicates that specialized freezer infrastructure is already present. Namun demikian, Plymouth will still need to qualify the facility for its own product mix and operating profile. Refrigeration capacity, aliran udara, keseragaman suhu, floor condition, isolasi, door seals, alarm, backup power and maintenance procedures should be assessed before full-scale use.

Temperature mapping is particularly important in a large freezer. Air near evaporators, pintu, langit-langit, walls and heavily loaded racking may behave differently. A validated mapping study can identify representative monitoring positions and confirm that the required conditions are maintained throughout the usable storage area.

Mengapa itu penting

The lease highlights the difference between ordinary industrial real estate and operational cold storage.

Newmark reported that broader Seattle industrial vacancy reached 9.7% in the first quarter of 2026, while availability rose to 12.8%. Despite that elevated general supply, specialized food-grade and freezer properties remained exceptionally limited and attracted strong tenant interest.

A vacant ambient warehouse cannot normally be converted into a reliable -20°F facility through a simple equipment installation. A freezer conversion may require a high-performance insulated envelope, vapor barriers, insulated floors, underfloor frost protection, pendingin industri, upgraded electrical capacity, specialized doors, fire-protection modifications and food-compatible operating areas.

These requirements increase capital cost, project duration and technical risk. An existing freezer facility can therefore offer significant time-to-operation advantages, particularly when the refrigeration, insulation and loading infrastructure remain serviceable.

Dedicated capacity also changes the operator’s level of control.

When a distributor relies on a multi-user 3PL facility, it shares warehouse capacity, receiving appointments, labor and operating priorities with other customers. A qualified 3PL can provide excellent service and flexible capacity, but the product owner may have less direct control over slotting, order sequencing, peak-season allocation and facility modifications.

An occupier-controlled freezer allows the company to configure workflows around its own products and customers. It can determine storage zones, inventory rules, jadwal pemeliharaan, monitoring systems and dispatch priorities without negotiating every operating change with an external warehouse provider.

That additional control also creates additional responsibility. Plymouth Poultry will need to manage refrigeration reliability, Keamanan Pangan, kebersihan, pengendalian hama, penggunaan energi, emergency response and equipment maintenance directly or through contracted specialists.

The location strengthens the strategic value of the asset. Access to the Ports of Seattle and Tacoma can support imported and exported food flows, while proximity to the airport and regional road network can support local and time-sensitive distribution.

Dampak B2B

For food manufacturers and suppliers, the new facility may provide Plymouth Poultry with greater control over inbound scheduling, frozen inventory and customer replenishment.

Suppliers should expect clear requirements for product temperature, pallet condition, pelabelan, lot identification and delivery appointments. A frozen product arriving above the agreed receiving limit may require quarantine or quality review even when the warehouse itself is operating correctly.

For refrigerated carriers, the lease may create additional frozen transport activity within the Puget Sound region. Carriers serving the site should maintain clean and pre-cooled trailers, verify reefer setpoints, record supply-air and return-air data where required, and preserve alarm history throughout the trip.

Reefer telemetry should not automatically be treated as proof of product-core temperature. For higher-risk or long-distance shipments, independent data loggers may still be needed to record the conditions experienced at representative locations within the load.

Untuk pemasok peralatan penyimpanan dingin, the facility will require ongoing support for compressors, evaporator, kontrol, pintu, segel, sensors and monitoring systems. Existing infrastructure should be reviewed for remaining service life, strategi pendingin, energy performance and spare-part availability.

For warehouse automation and racking providers, the combination of frozen and dry storage creates opportunities to improve space utilization and order flow. Any equipment installed inside the freezer must be suitable for low-temperature operation, including batteries, kabel, lubricants, displays and safety components.

Untuk pemantauan dan penyedia perangkat lunak, Plymouth’s existing emphasis on electronic warehouse management and temperature monitoring creates an opportunity to link facility data with lot-level inventory. Alarm records are more useful when operators can immediately identify which products, customers and orders may have been affected.

Untuk pemasok kemasan, frozen distribution still requires appropriate secondary packaging even when the warehouse and vehicle are refrigerated. Karton, stretch film, labels and pallet-stabilization materials must retain performance at low temperatures and under condensation or repeated handling conditions.

For insurers and risk managers, occupier-controlled cold storage creates a concentrated inventory exposure. Risk reviews should examine refrigeration redundancy, emergency power, proteksi kebakaran, ammonia or refrigerant safety where applicable, temperature-record backup and access to alternative freezer capacity.

A contingency plan should identify where products can be transferred if the refrigeration plant fails or the building becomes inaccessible. The plan should include qualified carriers, available pallet positions, response contacts and procedures for maintaining lot traceability during an emergency relocation.

For B2B cold chain buyers, the wider lesson is that general warehouse availability does not equal cold-storage availability. A facility with existing low-temperature infrastructure, strategic transport access and direct operational control can remain highly competitive even when the surrounding industrial property market has excess space.

Plymouth Poultry’s Kent lease reflects a broader cold chain reality: specialized freezer capacity is valuable because it combines real estate, thermal engineering, regulatory control and distribution access in one operating asset.