Cadence completes The Crossing industrial estate with $120m cold storage facility

Cadence Property Group (Cadence) has completed the development of its highly successful 50-hectare industrial estate in Truganina, The Crossing, after securing a pre-lease with Laverton Cold Storage (LCS) for the delivery of a $120 million purpose-built super prime cold storage facility targeting 5-Star Green Star.

The Crossing is a 50-hectare mixed use business park located in Melbourne’s booming western corridor. Situated at the intersection of Leakes and Forsyth Rd, Truganina, The Crossing is centrally placed within one of Australia’s fastest growing residential and employment catchments and in close proximity to major road, rail and port infrastructure.

Cadence acquired the site in 2016 and has progressively developed the estate over eight stages through a mixture of small and large lot subdivision and built form development.

Established in 1975, LCS is one of Melbourne’s premier large scale cold storage service and distribution providers and will occupy the 3.8-hectare site at The Crossing with 23,118 square metres of lettable area.

To facilitate growing client demand, LCS sought to expand their storage capacity and operational footprint in Melbourne. The deal represents one of the most significant commitments in the cold storage sector in Melbourne in recent memory and will set a new benchmark for the sector with a strong focus on sustainable, energy efficient design featuring two megawatts of roof top solar and state of the art warehouse management and automation technology.

The new facility for LCS is partly funded by the Cadence Australian Real Estate Partnership I (CAREP I), Cadence’s maiden multi-asset value add fund, with the remaining equity raised from private investors.

Cadence Chief Executive Officer, Charlie Buxton, says the facility will be constructed specifically to suit LCS’ requirements, including over 16,000 square metres of freezer space to be chilled up to -24 degrees Celsius, a large temperature-controlled staging area, and space for blast freezing.

“Cadence has been working closely with LCS for several months to optimise the design of the facility and concurrently progress town planning and detailed design activity,” said Buxton.

“The building, for which we are targeting a five-star Green Star rating, will set a new benchmark for the sector with a strong focus on sustainable, energy efficient design.”

The project is deliberately timed from Cadence’s point of view, addressing the shortfall in cold storage space recently reported in CBRE’s Cold Chain Logistics report.

“Due to a severe undersupply of prime cold storage space in the Australian market and the largely non-discretionary demand drivers that support the sector, we have really strong conviction in the cold storage asset class, particularly at this stage in the cycle.”

The subject site represents the last remaining lot at The Crossing and caps off development of the ~$700m estate.

“We are thrilled to be working with LCS on this final lot and completing this estate which is now home to over 150 individual businesses,” said Buxton.

LCS Founder, Richard Ralph, has expressed the benefit the construction of this new facility will have on jobs in Victoria as it provides a pivotal boost to cold storage supply chain capacity for meats and poultry from regional areas.

“This facility will have a huge impact on regional Victoria,” said Ralph.

“It will create thousands of jobs and huge opportunities for people that otherwise may not be there, so I think that’s something that will inspire us all as we get this underway.”

Texco Construction has commenced delivery of the facility on site, targeting an operational date for late 2025.