From Worn Out to New Life

Throwback Thursday: Taking a former meat packing plant and turning it into a modern ecommerce fulfillment center built for the cold chain.

When the mandate was to find a facility to support 5x growth but keep the cost below market - you tend to get creative. When you can tie that creativity and mandate into revitalization - it's a big win.

It was a full gut and rebuild - freezer, cooler, packing areas, dry storage, offices, training space, redesigned docks, and a custom CO₂ removal system to safely support dry ice at scale.

But beyond the construction, there was something more meaningful happening - I was giving new life to something worn out. If you know me - you know that I see what others cannot. I see the value in what is deemed unworthy - buildings, systems, people.

Some lessons from this project:

- Buildings dictate behavior. If a space is tired, inefficient, or unsafe, it quietly teaches bad habits. Thoughtful design restores discipline by default.

- Design for reality, not nostalgia. Old facilities weren’t built for ecommerce, cold chain, or scale. Honoring the past doesn’t mean being constrained by it.

- Safety and efficiency grow together. Modern ventilation, dock flow, and temperature control didn’t slow the operation down - they made it safer, faster, and more humane.

- Renewal is a leadership choice. Revitalizing a worn-out building mirrors what good leaders do with teams and systems: remove friction, invest intentionally, and create conditions where performance can return.

This didn’t just repurpose a facility. It restored purpose, reduced risk, and built future capability into old walls.

Second chances!