Wholesale seafood and meat supplier Beaver Street Fisheries has completed a renovation of its seafood-packaging facility in Jacksonville, Florida, U.S.A.
The USD 4.9 million (EUR 4.4 million) project, completed by design, engineering, and construction firm Stellar, involved the conversion of a 12,000-square-foot freezer into a seafood processing and packaging facility expansion on the company’s campus near Jacksonville’s downtown area. As part of the project, Stellar also designed and installed a 1,700-square-foot processing support freezer and ammonia refrigeration system.
"Since this structure was built more than half a century ago, along with converting its use, there were a number of opportunities to improve its operational and energy efficiency. Furthermore, to support the new lighting and refrigeration system, we built a new electrical room and tied into the existing utility infrastructure,” Stellar Lead Project Manager Thomas Ansell said in a press release. “It was important for BSF to maintain unimpaired operations and high standards of food safety during construction, so Stellar strategically planned and successfully implemented construction logistics, strategic phases, and debris controls to accommodate these requirements.”
Beaver Street previously tasked Stellar with the construction of its flagship storage and processing facility in 1985, followed by a new 300,000-square-foot multipurpose facility in 2000, and a facility in Nassau, Bahamas, in 2013.
"Given ongoing global supply chain and labor availability issues, Stellar did a great job of keeping this project on track and finishing it in accordance with our overall timetable and best practices,” Beaver Street Fisheries Chief Financial Officer Jeff Edwards said. “The quality of the finished construction is consistent with our state-of-the-art standards for food processing and storage facilities and will enable BSF to continue supporting the growing needs of its customers worldwide.”
Beaver Street Fisheries’ business has been thriving amid the COVID-19 pandemic, after successfully executing a shift to retail. The company supplies more than 2,000 different products, including Sea Best individual fillets, snow crab clusters, seasoned and sliced ahi tuna steaks, bacon-wrapped scallops, and Argentine red shrimp, as well as a variety of farmed shrimp from Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP)-certified farms.
A Beaver Street Fisheries spokesperson said company executives were unavailable for additional comment to SeafoodSource.
Photo courtesy of Stellar
