$24M Cold Storage Facility Planned in Mulberry

A rendering of a $24 million cold storage facility planned by Compass Cold Storage of Mulberry

The owners of a northwest Arkansas trucking company have partnered with the construction firm Ti Cold of Melbourne, Florida, on a $24 million cold storage facility in Mulberry.

Doug Bowen and his business partner Darren Winstead have formed Compass Cold Storage LLC of Mulberry, the company that will own and operate the planned 70,000-SF facility. The facility will feature the latest refrigeration and freezing technology available in the industry, and will have the capacity to support food wholesalers, retailers, and food manufacturing customers in central and northwest Arkansas, the company said in a news release.

The project is expected to create 25-30 jobs. Construction is set to begin in April with a completion date in the first quarter of 2023. 

The facility will be built on Industrial Park Drive, where Bowen’s and Winstead’s food transport business, Doug’s Produce, is located. The company was founded in 2003 with one truck and has since grown to 36 trucks, according to the company’s Facebook page. It has clients throughout the Southeast.

“This is an exciting new opportunity and a natural fit with our existing distribution services,” Bowen said in the release. “This cold storage warehouse will allow us to better serve the clients who have been with us a long time, while branching out to help future clients.”

The new facility will allow Compass Cold to store its clients’ inventory and pick, pack and ship products directly. Orders can be fulfilled quickly and efficiently by providing warehousing, order processing, and shipping and receiving.

“Customers expect quality and speed,” Winstead said, “and the design by Ti Cold for this facility will give us the ability to meet those demands well into the future.”