Project name: Empire Cold Storage

Address: 62864 NE Oxford Court

Developer, general contractor and owner: Empire Construction & Development LLC

Architect: Steele Associates Architects, LLC

Cost of the project: About $7 million

Project details: The 25,000-square-foot facility will have cooler, freezer and dry storage space for rent. Connor Stephenson, lead property manager with Empire Construction & Development, said the facility will open next month and lease out pallet space to local businesses on a monthly basis.

Empire Cold Storage is targeting businesses, like beef farmers, breweries, wineries and distilleries, but will rent out space to small, independent businesses and private residents.

Facility manager Scott Hughes said when completed, the facility will have 6,800 square feet of cooler storage space, 3,800 square feet of freezer space and 5,500 square feet of dry storage space. That makes for 700 pallet spaces available in the cooler, 350 pallets in the freezer and 75 in the dock area for dry storage. Pallets are priced at $50 per month for cooler storage, $60 for freezer storage and $40 for dry storage.

The design features a PermaCold Engineering, Inc. HVAC system and glycol system and the coolers are made of Kingspan insulated metal panels. Hughes said he has a remote monitoring system to track and modify the temperatures of the coolers.

With a 24-hour, high-tech surveillance system as well as a cloud-based warehouse management software system, customers will be able to track their pallets and products. They will also have online access to the facility’s records of their in-going and outgoing product.

Empire Construction & Development has built over 50 construction projects in Central Oregon that range from industrial business parks and commercial buildings to residential homes.

Plans are for the facility to be open for regular business hours Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Hughes said customers will be able to make arrangements to enter the facility during nonbusiness hours when necessary.

Hughes said there are few cold storage facilities in Central Oregon and that some local manufacturers have to resort to shipping their product over the mountains. “We’re here to help other businesses in town with their logistics,” he said.

Empire plans to open the facility on Sept. 15. Construction began in May of 2023.