Coldbox receives 2022 CEBA Built by the Best Award

The Controlled Environment Building Association (CEBA) has named Coldbox and Griffco Design/Build Inc. as the 2022 CEBA Built by the Best Award recipients.

The announcement was made during the closing General Session of the CEBA Annual Conference and Expo held this week in Florida. CEBA members are experts in building the cold chain, and in recognizing their tremendous expertise, the CEBA Built by the Best Award was launched in 2016. The award acknowledges project teams moving the industry forward in designing and constructing controlled environment facilities.

Coldbox received the CEBA Built by the Best Award – Project Under $35 million for a facility built for Confederation Freezers in Brantford, Ontario, Canada. Confederation Freezers saw demand for its business increase substantially. As a result, it needed additional space within its existing site to accommodate growing customer needs. The company hired Coldbox to expand and alter the facility by 109,000 square feet to make it more practical.

One challenge was that Confederation Freezers needed to maintain full operation and service during construction. As a solution, Coldbox took a progressive design-build approach to ensure that construction could happen while Confederation Freezer’s workers were not interrupted. With the finished facility, Coldbox was able to increase Confederation Freezer’s storage capacity of this building by 50%, which helped the company meet demand.

“Coldbox, Confederation Freezers and all of the CEBA members who worked on the project created a warehouse we can all be proud of,” said Paul D’Agostino, COO, Coldbox. “We look forward to continuing to grow and nurture our relationships with new and existing partners in the cold storage industry.”

Griffco Design/Build Inc. received the CEBA Built By the Best Award – Project Over $35 million for their work on Phase I of Americold’s Gateway facility (Atlanta, Goergia), a 200,000-sq.-ft. Brownfield automated building.

Three honorable mention submissions: ESI Group USA for the Ben E. Keith Foods food distribution facility – New Brockton, Aabama; Primus Builders for the Cold Summit Development cold storage facility – Dallas, Texas; Ryan Companies for the Kroger Co./Ocado automated grocery fulfillment center – Forest Park, Georgia.

Four finalists include: AM King for Mission Produce Inc. food distribution facility – Laredo, Texas; Coldbox for the Confederation Freezers expansion project – Brantford, ON, Canada; Fisher Construction Group for the Arctic Cold cold storage facility – Oxnard, California; Griffco Design/Build Inc. for the Americold Gateway automated freezer facility project – Atlanta, Georgia.

All submissions were vetted by a panel of judges, including Zach Norris, VP of Evans General Contracting; Rob Adams, executive vice president of Ti Cold; Burnie Taylor, chief development & solutions officer, Arcadia Cold Storage & Logistics; Mike Lynch, VP of Engineering, US Cold Storage; Charles Woolley, Manager, Controlled Environment Systems and Rob Brodsky, senior VP, Stellar.