PHOENIX, AZ – LGE Design Build has completed construction on a new 300,000-square-foot U.S. Western warehouse and distribution center in Goodyear for Michael Lewis Company (MLCo).
MLCo distributes food and catering supplies ranging from first-class gourmet meals and alcoholic beverages to hand towels and soap to major airlines such as American Airlines, United Airlines, Delta Air Lines, British Airways, and in-flight caterers.
MLCo selected Goodyear Gateway industrial park for its new building because of its pre-approved Foreign Trade Zone designation and close proximity to Interstate 10. With almost 100 employees, MLCo had outgrown its previous 100,000-square-foot facility near Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, while also using two additional outside storage facilities.
“Our new distribution center is designed to meet our unique business model and foster energy efficiency as well as cost savings,” said Frank Kunz Jr., MLCo’s Phoenix operations manager. “Consolidating our previous facilities will improve inventory management.”
The new distribution center offers a cool dock for half of the building’s 58 dock doors. About 100,000 square feet of the 300,000-square-foot building is a refrigerated freezer. Rather than using diesel fuel, the new building provides auxiliary electrical power to run trailer refrigeration units while docked.
The building also has solar paneling that acts as cover for the dock doors, a 30,000-square-foot, two-story office space, a “Kalman” floor (a specialized reinforced shrinkage compensation floor), all LED lighting, and a fitness center. A test kitchen and test dining center will offer their customers the opportunity to present new in-flight catering ideas.
“LGE Design Build is proud to construct a state-of-the-art distribution center that will serve MLCo for years to come,” said David Sellers, president of LGE Design Build.