Utz Opens Pennsylvania Industrial Facility
Utz Brands Inc. has officially opened Rice Distribution Center, a 650,000-square-foot logistics facility in Hanover, Pa. The development team included Conewago Enterprises as general contractor.
An entity associated with Utz received an $88.1 million note tied to Rice Distribution Center’s address in 2022, according to Adams County public records. City National Bank issued the loan.
The new building will serve as a main logistics hub for storage, consolidation and distribution for Utz’s facilities across the U.S. The warehouse is the result of the firm’s network optimization efforts.
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Utz’s revision aimed to simplify its existing network and enhance the relationship with co-manufacturing partners, as well as bolster its warehouse capacity. Additionally, as part of the optimization, Utz ceased operations at the Carlisle Street factory, its oldest plant in Hanover, which debuted in 1949.
The build-to-suit distribution center encompasses 73 dock doors and 375 trailer parking spaces. Estimates place the building’s operational capacity at 2.3 million pallets of product—amounting to 1.1 billion pounds—per year.
Located at 101 Kindig Lane, the property is less than 5 miles from U.S. Route 30, an east-west route connecting Oregon to New Jersey, and some 30 miles south of Interstate 81. Utz already owns nearly 900,000 square feet of industrial product, including cold storage, across three facilities on Kindig Lane, according to CommercialEdge data.
Industrial deliveries stall in the I-81/78 Corridor
The I-81/78 corridor, which includes Central and Northeastern Pennsylvania, as well as Lehigh Valley, witnessed more than 3.8 million square feet of industrial deliveries year-to-date through September, according to a report by Newmark. The figure marked the lowest volume of completions since 2013.
For the sixth consecutive quarter, the market’s industrial construction starts were under the 2 million square feet mark, clocking in at 982,000 square feet during the three-month period ending in September, the same report shows.
The decline in new construction was in part due to moderating demand—leasing activity was down 500,000 square feet quarter-over-quarter, landing at 4.5 million square feet from July to September—and the higher cost of capital that defined most of the year, according to Newmark.
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