A lot more warehouse space could be coming to Niagara County, this time a bit cooler.
Gregory Mulvey and Donald Timm, of Mulvey Construction in Lockport and TDH Refrigeration in Cheektowaga respectively, have proposed a new 80,000-square-foot cold storage and micro-fulfillment facility in Wheatfield. Planned to operate under the name Polaris Cold Storage, the warehouse at 6410 Inducon Corporate Dr. is planned to be built in one phase and open in early 2026.
The $13.45 million project would have more than 1.25 million cubic feet of storage, with five separate freezer storage areas totaling 672,000 cubic feet, four coolers taking up 336,000 cubic feet, and 252,000 cubic feet for dry goods. Eight loading docks for trucks are planned with room for expansion up to 12.
“We have the ability to build the facility, probably for less than a lot of people,” Timm said.
Mulvey and Timm had been developing this warehouse over the past three years, as other cold storage facilities in Western New York are either outdated, not energy efficient, or expensive to repair. Mulvey added that there are no more cold storage facilities buildings built because they are expensive.
They chose this site, which they paid $250,000 for, due its location close to the Niagara Falls International Airport, the Canadian border, the under-construction Amazon facility, and many farms and agricultural business. Timm said that around 40% of the population in the U.S. and Canada are within a 10-hour drive of Western New York.
They also touted the use of third-party software that uses QR codes to give a worker how long something should be in storage, what temperature to keep it at, and where its located among other details.
“A warehouse worker can go and look at his scanner and see exactly where he needs to go,” Mulvey said, with Timm adding an energy management system for overseeing temperatures and detecting leaks will be used.
Through their joint venture MT Altimeter LLC, Mulvey and Timm asked the Niagara County Industrial Development Agency for a 15-year PILOT agreement worth $2.71 million in savings, $604,000 in sales tax exemptions and $77,813 in mortgage recording tax exemptions.
The warehouse will be funded through $10.375 million in bank financing, $2.5 million in equity, $150,000 in grants and tax credits, and $400,000 in other sources.
Project documents state that the new facility would create eight jobs within three years, including the likes of warehouse manager, warehouse laborer, forklift operator, accountant, and shipping clerk. It would have an annual payroll of $376,800, with seven full-time workers making an average combined salary of $316,800 per year and two part-time workers making a total of $60,000 per year.