Fort Worth's city council has signed off on a tax break for Americold, a major player in the chilled storage game as they seek to make inroads in the local market. According to the City of Fort Worth's official website, this move is poised to bolster the company's presence with new facilities aimed at enhancing the city's logistics capabilities, particularly in storing temperature-sensitive products in high demand thanks to the boom in e-commerce and shifts in supply chain strategies.
As it stands, Americold sports a vast network, both internationally with 239 locations and locally with establishments already planted in Fort Worth, Dallas, Grand Prairie, and Mansfield, employing a workforce of 15,000 strong. The city council's green light is anticipated to drive more than $2.5 million in fresh net taxes annually into Fort Worth's coffers, and if all goes according to plan, the investment payoff period for these incentives should clock in under three and a half years.
Cold storage warehousing serves an essential function by keeping perishables and other delicate goods like food and medicine in climate-regulated safe-havens. Public records show that currently, nearly every nook and cranny of Fort Worth's cold storage space is occupied—99% to be exact—creating a bottleneck for potential new clients, with not a single new unit in construction as of the last quarter of 2023. The stage is set for Americold's expansion to unlock much-needed capacity, especially for businesses sprawled on the western flank of the DFW Metroplex.
