Neither wind nor rain ... Stellar Group helps Berkshire Refrigerated Warehousing rebuild,...

It was one of those times when the "Windy City" lived up to its reputation. Fortunately, however, the thunderstorm did not harm the strong customer service reputation of Chicago's Berkshire Refrigerated Warehousing.

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What happened? In July 2003, a microburst

of high winds caused irreparable damage to Berkshire's 70,000-square-foot warehouse. Needing to quickly reestablish Midwest operations, the company turned to The Stellar Group to demolish the damaged building and reconstruct a new 132,000-square-foot storage and low-temperature distribution warehouse in its place.

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During the construction phase, Berkshire's operations were contained to its existing outdated smaller warehouse and offices adjacent to the site. Stellar, the design-builder, provided engineering, architecture and construction management services for the reconstruction, and the project was fast-tracked--running from July 2004 to March 2005--to allow Berkshire to be up and running in as little time as possible.

"Our Chicago cold storage warehouse suffered tremendous damage after a freak, but severe weather occurrence," said Berkshire owner and President Ted Grzywacz. "We're excited to have a new, larger warehouse in its place, though, and Stellar lived up to our expectations to provide us with a state-of-the-art facility in a limited amount of time."

In addition to providing refrigerated cold storage services, the new facility houses administrative offices, a machine and mechanical room for all refrigeration equipment, and a battery charging room. Stellar also added truck docks, multi-level racking systems and oversized shipping doors for the efficient facilitation of logistics and material handling. Building materials for the new construction included a heavy-duty structural steel frame, a single-ply membrane roofing system and insulated metal wall panels to promote energy-efficient refrigerated warehousing.

Today, Berkshire operates 5.2 million cubic feet of freezer space to offer public cold storage and warehousing services to a variety of food processors and manufacturers. For more information about the firm, call (773) 254-2424.

The Stellar Group is a premier design, engineering and construction firm providing design/build, general contracting, construction management, mechanical, refrigeration and thermal insulation contracting services worldwide. Headquartered in Jacksonville, Fla., Stellar has extensive successful project experience in the food manufacturing, food distribution, industrial manufacturing and distribution, power and utilities, commercial, healthcare, institutional, and hospitality markets. For more information about The Stellar Group, call (800) 488-2900 or visit www.thestellargroup.com