Terminal Freezers Adds Oxnard Warehouse Space

Terminal Freezers Inc., a Burlington, Wash., firm that operates refrigerated food warehouses in California and Oregon, plans to add three new buildings totaling 200,000 square feet to its Oxnard facility.

The new structures, to be completed over the next several years, will bring Terminal Freezers’ total space at its 23-acre site on East 3rd Street to 440,000 square feet, said Lowell Dayton, president and chief executive officer.

Work is scheduled to start in December or January on the first phase of the expansion, a 100,000-square-foot warehouse. The building should open next May, Dayton said.

The second new unit, about 70,000 square feet, will be built in 1994, Dayton added. He said a 30,000-square-foot processing plant will complete the expansion but will not be started until a user is found.

Most of Terminal Freezers’ Ventura County business involves the storing and processing of fruits, vegetables and fish, Dayton said.

“Primarily, we’re a storage company,” he reported. “We do some processing, but most of our customers do that themselves, using our equipment.” After being stored and processed, the food is distributed worldwide.

Dayton said locally grown strawberries, broccoli and lima beans are the main produce that pass through the Oxnard plant. Seafood from the county’s coastal waters also is stored and processed there, he added.

Recently, Australian beef imported through the Port of Hueneme has been stored in the company’s refrigerators before being distributed throughout the United States.

In addition to its Oxnard plant, privately held Terminal Freezers also operates storage units in Watsonville and in Salem, Ore.