The newly expanded Baldor Specialty Foods facility in Hunts Point, New York — Courtesy: Dresdner Robin
By Joshua Burd
A design and engineering team based in Jersey City has completed its work on a $25 million, 110,000-square-foot expansion of a food company’s facility in the South Bronx.
Dresdner Robin this week detailed the project in the borough’s Hunts Point section, where Baldor Specialty Foods has added to its headquarters, storage and distribution facility. Among other improvements, the design calls for increasing floor space to 270,000 square feet, creating 300 new jobs and adding some 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,” Michael Muzyk, president of Baldor Specialty Foods, said in a prepared statement, noting that Dresdner Robin’s design added 42 loading docks and 300 parking spaces, while ensuring that construction did not interrupt its 24/7 operation.
Baldor, one of the largest importers and distributors of fresh produce and specialty foods in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, delivers to stores and restaurants within a 120-mile radius of its Hunts Point facility, Dresdner Robin said in a news release. The construction and engineering of the project is being done in two phases, the first of which is complete and fully operational.
Construction is nearing completion on the second phase, with 30 additional loading docks being added to the facility.
“We are very happy that our innovative design will help Baldor better serve its diverse set of customers,” said Joseph Mele, director of engineering with Dresdner Robin. “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.”
Starting in 2015, Dresdner Robin said it created a multiphase plan for design and construction at the site, which is owned by the New York Economic Development Corp. As such, that included gaining city approvals and permits on all construction and engineering services.
“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,” said Rob Laner, assistant project manager with Dresdner Robin. He noted that his firm partnered with the architects at Cybul Cybul Wilhelm on the design of the expansion.
