ALDI’s newest headquarters and distribution center opened in January along Alabama’s Gulf Coast. It is a multifaceted facility that will support more than 100 stores for the grocery chain’s rapid expansion in the region.

Contractor A M King completed the almost 600,000-sq-ft facility in roughly 18 months, providing the grocery chain with more than 82,000 sq ft of dry storage space, 87 dock positions and racking for 28,000 pallet positions on a 167-acre site between Mobile, Ala., and Pensacola, Fla. Five cold storage areas inside the facility, ranging from 65,674 sq ft to 4,957 sq ft, can produce temperatures from 55 degrees to negative 10 degrees Fahrenheit.

Shrinkage-compensating concrete floors minimize cracking and structural movement, and 6-in.-thick IMP exterior walls maximize thermal efficiency.

The owner and team members relied on their more than 20 years of working together to overcome challenges like design changes to the office portion of the building that rippled into the warehouse and employee areas. Along with a phased construction schedule that saw crews finishing the warehouse portion while employees moved into the office portion, almost double the typical rainfall fell in the area and cost the team 106 days of work. Creative labor placement and communication were crucial to overcome those challenges, and the design-build team met daily with warehouse personnel to hammer out logistical and safety details.