Global agribusiness company progressing toward building frozen food storage facility in Shelbyville

Simplot Global Food is focusing on Shelbyville to build its next frozen food storage facility.

On Tuesday at City Hall, the Shelbyville Board of Zoning Appeals approved a development standard variance that will allow the Boise, Idaho-based agribusiness company to build a freezer facility on site up to 157 feet high – more than 50 feet higher than the city’s current ordinance height limit.

The facility will be located on Phase II of Tom Hession Drive, which is currently under construction, near West Walser Road.

Simplot, with nearly 100 years in business, currently operates in the United States, Canada and Mexico and is seeking to expand east across the U.S. to better serve the East Coast.

The company employs more than 13,000 employees worldwide and expects to hire 85-95 employees at the Shelbyville facility which will house cold storage for roughly 48,000 pallets of frozen food.

All of the product stored on site will arrive via railroad cars and trucks. The product will then he shipped out to customers via trucks.

“The freezer will be fully automated, utilizing automated carry systems to deliver product to the freezer, storing them utilizing stacker crane technology,” according to the presentation given Tuesday at the Board of Zoning Appeals meeting.

The request for the height variance came with the knowledge that taller cold storage facilities are more energy efficient compared to building wider on a property site.

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