Baldor Specialty Foods completed the engineering and general design work on a $25 million, 110,000-square-foot expansion of its Hunts Point, N.Y.-based headquarters, storage and distribution facility. The design increased floor space to 270,000 square feet, created 300 new jobs and added over 50 new delivery trucks to accommodate increased production.
“This expansion will help Baldor increase its product lines with new fruits and produce to serve the area’s top restaurants and grocery stores,” says Michael Muzyk, president. “Dresdner Robin’s incredible design added 42 loading docks and 300 parking spaces to the facility, and they worked diligently to ensure construction did not interrupt our 24/7 operation.”
Baldor Specialty Foods curates and delivers fresh produce, meats, dairy and organics to stores and restaurants within a 120-mile radius of its Hunts Point facility.
“We are very happy that our innovative design will help Baldor better serve its diverse set of customers,” says Joseph Mele, director of engineering, Dresdner Robin, Fairfield, N.J. “Baldor has some of the best food in the world going out to prime restaurants across the country. Our expert team worked hard to minimize disruptions to the facility. We created an engineering timeline that allowed Baldor to remain open 24 hours per day, seven days per week during the design and construction process.”
The construction and engineering of this project is being done in two phases. The first phase of the expansion is complete and fully operational. Construction is nearing completion on the second phase, with 30 additional loading docks being added to the facility.
“During the construction phase of the project, we found many unforeseen obstructions such as subsurface utilities and remnant structures that caused our team to redesign the project on the fly, so the project can keep moving forward and hit our targeted deadlines,” says Rob Laner, assistant project manager, Dresdner Robin.
Other engineering challenges included high ground water on the site, requiring substantial dewatering for excavations, as well as a 42-inch gas line and 24-inch gas line from the adjacent Con Edison site that the team had to design and construct around.
Dresdner Robin partnered with Cybul Cybul Wilhelm, Edgewater, N.J., on the design of the expansion.
