AURORA | When shoppers around the Rocky Mountain region reach for some organic vegetables next year, there’s a good chance it will have made a stop in Aurora.
United Natural Foods, Inc., a Providence, R.I.-based food distributor specializing in natural, organic and specialty foods, broke ground last week on a new 535,000-square foot distribution center in far north Aurora’s Gateway Park. The new location, which consolidates four metro-area UNFI facilities into one, is scheduled to open in summer 2013.
Steve Spinner, UNFI president and CEO said consolidating the company’s local operations will make them more efficient.
“With new and efficient operations, and all our associates located together, this new facility should enable us to continue to expand our operations while reducing operating costs,” he said in a statement announcing the ground breaking last week.
The new facility is located at 17901 E. 40th Ave., just a couple miles from the current UNFI Aurora location near East 32nd Avenue and Chambers Road.
The move means UNFI will stay close to the Interstate 70 corridor and a short distance from Denver International Airport, two things the company said was important in selecting its new location.
The new facility will serve as a distribution hub for retailers in several Rocky Mountain states as well as Kansas and Nebraska.
The city of Aurora last spring gave UNFI a package of tax breaks to keep them in Aurora, including sales and use tax breaks. In exchange, the company has to maintain its current 475 jobs and add another 74 over the next decade, bringing the total employment there to 550 people.
Mayor Steve Hogan said it was important to keep the company in Aurora.
“United Natural Foods is a solid company with a bright future, and we are thrilled they have chosen to consolidate their operations in Aurora,” he said in the statement.
Yuriy Gorlov, business development manager at the Aurora Economic Development Council, said several other cities were vying for the consolidated distribution center before Aurora landed it.
“There was some stiff competition,” he said.
AEDC wants to recruit distribution centers like UNFI’s to the I-70 corridor, Gorlov said, so the project was a good fit.
“Distribution and logistics are important there so it’s a huge win for us,” he said.
The UNFI ground breaking comes at a welcome time for the city’s business leaders. This summer two major deals, one for a massive Gaylord Entertainment hotel and resort, the other for a solar panel manufacturing plant, both floundered.
Gorlov said the UNFI deal, while not on the scale of those two, is important still.
“It’s the daily deals like this that really matter,” he said.
Wendy Mitchell, president and CEO of AEDC, said the new facility is a good sign for other companies looking to grow after weathering difficult years during the recession.
“Building a new state-of-the-art facility will give the community a chance to see how companies have used the past few years to regroup and refocus their efforts on providing the best quality and cost effective solutions to their customers while growing their workforce,” she said.
According to UNFI, the new facility will have about 160,000 square feet of refrigeration and freezer space, including an expanded cold dock, and over 42,000 square feet for employee offices and workspaces.
The building’s design focuses on resource and energy conservation and the use of sustainable and recycled-content building materials — “green” building plans that UNFI said are especially important to them. The building will be LEED certified as well, the company said.