The Portland, Maine, City Council has cleared the way for the construction of a large new refrigerated warehouse that proponents contend will be a boon to Maine’s burgeoning food economy.
The City Council voted 8 to 1 to make zoning changes that will allow a cold-storage company to move forward with a plan to build a 68-foot-tall freezer facility on Portland’s western waterfront.
The planned facility will benefit Maine farmers, breweries and fishermen, who sometimes are pinched for refrigerated storage in the state, and help them reach international markets, according to the project’s numerous proponents in the business community and state and local governments.
The warehouse would likely be built and operated by Americold on waterfront property leased from the Maine Port Authority. It is intended, in part, to meet the demands of Eimskip, the Icelandic shipping company that made the Port of Portland the hub of its North American operations in 2013.
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