NEW ORLEANS — Lineage Logistics, an industrial REIT specializing in cold storage real estate, will build a $42 million expansion of its Jourdan Road cold storage facility at Port of New Orleans (Port NOLA). The State of Louisiana is providing $10 million in capital outlay funds, while Port NOLA is providing $2 million in funds. Michigan-based Lineage Logistics is investing the remaining $30 million in capital for the cold storage project, and also is expected to utilize Louisiana’s Quality Jobs Program.
The cold storage complex is located along the Inner Harbor Navigation Canal. The development plans are for the complex to grow from 160,000 square feet to 304,000 square feet. Lineage Logistics plans to retain 188 existing jobs with the new project, while creating an estimated 50 new direct maritime and warehousing jobs. Louisiana Economic Development estimates the project will result in an additional 56 new indirect jobs, for a total of more than 100 new permanent jobs in the region.
In 2020, Lineage Logistics’ facilities in New Orleans partnered with Port NOLA to export 380,000 tons of poultry to global markets. The development expansion will support imports of fresh produce as well.
In 2012, Port NOLA and New Orleans Cold Storage, a more than 100-year-old company operating in three cities in greater New Orleans, opened a new 140,000-square-foot, blast-freeze facility in 2012 at the Henry Clay Avenue Wharf upriver. The facility added 1.25 million pounds of daily blast-freeze capacity and 38 million pounds of storage capacity for frozen goods, which is in addition to the Jourdan Road site.
In 2019, Emergent Cold purchased New Orleans Cold Storage, including the Jourdan Road facility. In 2020, Lineage Logistics acquired New Orleans Cold Storage as part of its acquisition of Emergent Cold.
Lineage Logistics’ expansion project is projected to be complete in the second quarter of 2022, and the company plans to begin hiring for its new jobs in early 2022.