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Amond World

An artist's rendering of the Amond World cold storage project in Madera. Image contributed

published on November 17, 2022 - 2:26 PM
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Investors in a Madera cold storage facility have secured financing for their project even as banks shy away from commercial construction loans in an uncertain market.

New York-based X-Caliber Capital provided a total of $52 million in construction financing from federal and state sources for the first phase of what will be two 250,000-square foot cold storage buildings being developed by Madera-based Amond World and Los Angeles-based Origo Investments.

Financing was provided by X-Caliber’s two affiliate companies: X-Caliber Rural Capital, which provided $35 million through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Supply Chain Program, and from CastleGreen Finance, which provided $17 million through the Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy (C-PACE) program from the State of California.

The money will cover the cost of the first building, according to Adam Hayner, founding principal with Origo Investments. The first building is scheduled to open April 2023. They hope to begin construction on the second building following that. Funding for that building is already secured, said Hayner, and will be around the same dollar amount.

Amond World developers broke ground in June on the cold storage buildings that would rent out space to growers to keep their produce preserved for market. Especially with the shipping difficulties of the last couple of years, almond growers have had difficulty finding buyers on favorable terms. Cold storage provides a place to keep nuts for sale longer.

Hayner said securing traditional financing has been difficult with market uncertainty.

“It’s very hard to get regular banks to engage in the real estate market because of the movement,” Hayner said. The loans from the USDA and C-PACE come as part of the investment federal and state government have made in infrastructure development.

Hayner said these projects are going to be a “huge service” for farmers in the area to help them preserve their crops post-harvest.

Origo, along with Amond World, are actively looking for additional cold storage sites from Bakersfield to Sacramento.


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