Preferred Freezer Services has announced plans to invest $60 million for the construction a 200,000-square-foot cold storage warehouse in the city of Portsmouth. The new facility will be used to import, export, process and distribute a variety of food products, positioning the company to meet the growing demand for cold storage space. Virginia successfully competed with Georgia for the project, which will create 60 new jobs.
The location will allow Preferred Freezer to leverage the Port of Virginia in accessing global markets. Headquartered in Chatham, New Jersey, with existing operations in Chesapeake, the company has over 1,800 employees worldwide and operates over 300 million cubic feet of state-of-the-art, full-service, temperature-controlled warehouse space across the United States and Asia.
The Virginia Economic Development Partnership worked with the City of Portsmouth, the Hampton Roads Economic Development Alliance and the Virginia Port Authority to secure the project, which included a $180,000 grant from the Commonwealth’s Opportunity Fund. The company also qualifies for state benefits from the Virginia Enterprise Zone Program, and is eligible for benefits from the Port of Virginia Economic Development Zone Grant Program, the Rail Industrial Access Program and the Economic Development Access Program.
