Avocado processing facility in Texas garners firm national construction award

A Charlotte, N.C.-headquartered design-and-build firm has been recognized with a national award for its delivery of a 275,00-square-foot avocado ripening and processing facility for Mission Produce Inc. in Laredo, Texas.

A M. King took second place from the Associated Builders and Contractors in the industrial ($25 million-$50 million category), winning ABC’s Pyramid Award for excellence in construction.

A M King, which also has offices in Chicago and Greenville, South Carolina, won the best-in-class Eagle Award for the project from the ABC Carolinas chapter in November 2022. National winners, selected from hundreds of nationwide entries, were judged on complexity, attractiveness, challenges overcome, completion time, innovation and safety.

The Mission Produce avocado processing facility, one of North America’s largest, also garnered the 2022 best project in the Design-Build Institute of America Southeast regional awards competition and earned national finalist status in the 2022 “Built by the Best” awards program sponsored by the Controlled Environment Building Association.

Mission Produce is a global leader in sourcing, ripening, processing and distributing fresh Hass avocados.

“Mission Produce had a clear vision for developing their North American flagship facility. Mission’s leadership wanted to build their largest and most innovative facility of its type yet, and the innovation is evident to all who visit the completed facility,” Dan Crist, A M King vice president, said in a news release. “They were very intentional about positioning the facility to expedite imported fruit from Mexico, serving as a major hub for avocados coming from Mexico to the U.S., as well as providing greater flexibility and expanded capabilities for their growing customer base.”

A M King provided property consulting services in addition to designing and building the facility, which includes cold storage, ripening, processing and packaging space. The property is located in Laredo’s Pinnacle Industry Center on 33 acres adjacent to the Rio Grande River and the U.S.-Mexico border.