Sept. 28, 2018

Nordica Warehouses Inc. is planning a major expansion at Foundation Park.

The Sioux Falls company is out of space at multiple locations and planning a new warehouse on 16 acres along the rail line at Foundation Park, not far from where Win Chill opened its storage and distribution center earlier this year.

Unlike Win Chill, which offers refrigerated and frozen storage, Nordica will focus on dry storage in its new building, which will start at 200,000 square feet and could expand to 300,000 square feet by 2022.

It will keep its headquarters at 2101 E. 39th Street N., where it has operated for the past two decades.

“For the last year and a half, we’ve been turning away business,” president Dan Afdahl said. “And we’ve added on and added on, and now we’re out of space and have to move somewhere else for our next addition.”

In the meantime, Nordica has leased several smaller spaces around town and plans to move more product into leased space in the former Bimbo Bakeries near 10th Street and Cleveland Avenue starting next month.

Nordica has more than 700,000 square feet spread among seven Sioux Falls locations, and loads or unloads more than 100 trucks, sea-going containers and rail cars daily.

“Our business primarily is warehousing raw materials coming into local businesses,” Afdahl said.

For example, the business delivers truckloads of corrugated boxes for meat and spices to Smithfield daily.

In addition to dry storage, Nordica offers freezer and cooler storage, outdoor storage for lumber and construction equipment, fulfillment and freight transfer services.

Afdahl has been looking for a new location for 18 months, he estimated, and was hoping to have one in place already. He was attracted by the large property available at Foundation Park and said he has an option on additional land that would allow him to double in size there.

“There isn’t a place that large in town,” he said.

Nordica is a welcome addition to Foundation Park, according to Dean Dziedzic, vice president of economic development for the Sioux Falls Development Foundation, which owns and is developing the 800-acre property.

“This keeps the momentum and the activity going. It is a 16-acre rail site, so it’s another rail tenant for the park, and the demand for rail sites is still pretty high,” he said.

“It’s really a testament to the retention strategy we have — being able to keep a business like this in town and for them to grow and be able to have a site big enough to serve their needs.”

Nordica plans to start construction at the park soon, and the plan is to open in April. Afdahl said he expects to add up to 10 employees there.