Stellar Construction recently completed its design-build project for fairlife, LLC in Goodyear, Arizona.
The approximately 300,000-square-foot production and distribution facility boasts advanced manufacturing technologies and equipment to enable continued growth, while supporting the increased demand for fairlife products. The company, a unit of Coca-Cola Co., produces ultra-filtered milk and other dairy products.
Stellar, a fully integrated firm focused on design, engineering, construction, refrigeration, and mechanical services worldwide, managed the $100 million project, including site development, building design, engineering and construction, and installation of all utilities to support the facility’s process equipment.
Several material types were used in the facility's construction, including concrete tilt-up walls, multi-colored insulated metal panel walls, conventional structural steel framing, pre-engineered metal steel canopy structures, and skylights for increased natural lighting.
"It was rewarding to see this great project come together, even in the face of challenges posed by the pandemic," said Wyatt Payne, divisional vice president at Stellar. "Our teams self-performed the facility's interior insulated metal panels, TPO roofing system, refrigeration, underground plumbing, and utilities scopes of work."
Stellar first broke ground on the project in March 2019.
The plant incorporates efficient, energy-saving equipment to minimize power consumption. It was also designed for future expansion to accommodate fairlife's continued growth. In fact, Stellar recently began designing a "phase two" expansion of the facility that adds cooler space, dry warehouse storage and additional processing capacity.
Since it is located on land formerly cultivated to grow crops, the Stellar team prepared the soil to ensure it had adequate bearing capacity to support the new structure. Engineers also designed special mat-slab foundations and installed a Geopier system to support 20 processing silos that are 85-feet tall
In addition to the more than 100 roles already filled at the Goodyear facility, fairlife has also partnered with the United Dairymen of Arizona (UDA) to source milk from numerous dairy farmers in the West Valley. The new plant will use this milk to manufacture nearly all products in the fairlife portfolio, including the different varieties of fairlife ultra-filtered milk, Core Power, fairlife YUP! and its newest protein-rich beverage, fairlife nutrition plan.
About fairlife, LLC
Chicago-based fairlife, LLC was founded in 2012 to produce nourishing and great-tasting milk-based products made using a patented cold-filtration process that removes some natural sugars while concentrating the protein and calcium naturally found in real cows’ milk. The portfolio of delicious, lactose-free fairlife products are available at major retail and grocery stores in the U.S.
About Stellar
Stellar is a fully integrated design, engineering, construction, refrigeration, and mechanical services firm serving commercial, industrial, and public sector markets across the United States and around the world. More than 750 Stellar employees worldwide create award-winning food processing plants, refrigerated warehouses, distribution centers, commercial buildings, and military facilities. In addition to its Jacksonville, Florida, headquarters, Stellar operates nearly 50 support locations and offices throughout the United States, China and in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The company also serves Central and South America, Europe, and India.
