A M King completes food distribution center in Florence

Construction on a Florida-based food-service distributor’s first South Carolina location is complete.

A M King, a fully integrated design-build firm, has completed design and construction of its fourth major project for Cheney Brothers Inc., a 386,047-square-foot refrigerator/freezer distribution facility in Florence. The distribution enter includes 45 loading docks, a Cheney Express and the largest culinary kitchen the company has developed to date, according to a news release from A M King.

The Florence facility is located on nearly 50 acres in the Pee Dee Commerce City East Industrial Park — across Interstate 95 from Buc-ee’s. The facility provides means for the broadline distributor to significantly expand its reach in the region.

“It’s simple when you partner with best-in-class companies,” Mike Turner, Cheney Brothers’ Florence facility president, said in the release. “It’s been a pleasure working with A M King over the years while they have helped us grow our footprint here in the Carolinas with the best buildings in the industry. We truly appreciate their professionalism, attention to detail, and the commitment to excellence throughout this project. We know A M King and they know us. Relationship matters.”

Warren Newell, Cheney Brothers’ director of development, stated in the release: “I have worked with dozens of design-build and construction firms over the years, and I can honestly say that A M King is one of the finest. They designed and constructed a first-class distribution center for us in Florence, which will strengthen our ability to serve Southeast Atlantic coastal customers.”

The scope of work included 100,963 square feet of dry storage and a 36,098-square-foot dry dock; a 90,095-square-foot freezer; 60,683 square feet of cooler with separate rooms and temperatures for dairy/meat, flour and produce, and a 31,533-square-foot cooler dock; 30,424 square feet of office spaces; a 7,142-square-foot Cheney Express with walk-in cooler; and a 3,364-square-foot test kitchen.

The installation of a robotic forklift battery exchanger carousel — a first for Cheney Brothers’ facilities — improves productivity and safety, the release stated. In addition, A M King’s design-build approach integrated dynamic seismic flexibility with high-wind protection into a single, resilient solution.

“We were thrilled to partner with Cheney Brothers to develop a facility of this magnitude and complexity,” A M King Vice President David Sawicki said in the release. “Our history of successful projects for CBI, along with our depth and breadth of food industry expertise, made this an ideal venture.”

A M King also designed space for future expansion within the facility, including a 75,305-square-foot cooler-freezer; 47,856 square feet of dry warehouse and 6,620 square feet of unfinished mezzanine.

And Cheney Brothers, meanwhile, has already announced expansion plans. In its original announcement in February 2022, Cheney Brothers said the facility would cost $66 million and employ 280. The company said in March it would invest another $42.5 million to expand the facility, creating an additional 85 jobs.

A M King’s past projects for Cheney Brothers include two major expansions at their Statesville facility, bringing the total square footage to 342,126. The projects comprised additional cold storage and dry warehouse space, a 2,000-square-foot commercial culinary center, cutting-edge penthouse refrigeration system, 37 new dock positions and a new receiving office.

A M King’s team also transformed a vacant shell building in Greensboro into a state-of-the-art food processing facility for Cheney Brothers’ affiliate Southern Foods. A M King won five industry awards for the Statesville facility and Southern Foods facility projects from organizations including ABC Carolinas, Controlled Environment Building Association (CEBA) and Engineering News-Record.

A M King currently has a project underway for Cheney Brothers in Florida.

Part of Performance Food Group, Cheney Brothers, based in Riviera Beach, Fla., was founded in 1925. In 2016, the company purchased Pate Dawson Co., thereby acquiring North Carolina distribution and processing facilities in Statesville and Greensboro.

A M King is based in Charlotte, with offices in Greenville, Chicago and Milwaukee.

Cheney Brothers is a broadline food distributor that delivers more than 16,000 different products throughout the Southeast region of United States and in more than 100 countries.