St. Michael company to reopen Detroit Lakes freezer plant on April 29 By Vicki L. Gerdes - Staff Writer , Detroit Lakes Newspaper Published Sunday, April 21, 2002 For the first time in more than two years, the Detroit Lakes freezer plant will be open for business on April 29. The sale of the 68,000 square-foot facility on Roosevelt Avenue was finalized earlier this month by Jack Chivers Realty. Former owner Milt Swedberg built the facility on his property to lease to the Chicago-based Swift and Company (later Swift-Eckrich) in 1989. The facility was built just north of the railroad tracks on Roosevelt, on a 4.5-acre piece of property near what was then a turkey plant that employed as many as 600 local workers. But because Swift’s turkey plant was built just south of the railroad tracks, an underground tunnel had to be constructed beneath the tracks to allow the turkeys to be transported into the freezer plant for cold storage, Swedberg recalled. Detroit Lakes freezer plant Through a “blast freezing process, up to 250,000 pounds of turkey could be chilled to a temperature of minus 20 degrees Fahrenheit in one day, Chivers added. When the turkey plant closed (that property is now occupied by Evans Foods), Swift also gave up its lease on the freezer plant, and Swedberg put it up for sale. When the freezer plant was built, it was a state-of-the-art facility — and still is, according to local realtor Jack Chivers, whose realty firm handled the sale. “It’s all computer controlled,” Swedberg pointed out. “It took about six months to build.” “It’s a very unique piece of property,” Chivers said. “It was just a matter of finding the right company geographically.” The partnership that purchased the property actually turned out to be based pretty close to home. Lakes Cold Storage, LLC, includes brothers Delta and Dave Daggett of Frazee (who jointly purchased a quarter interest); Gary Davis and Jim Lehr of Wadena, and a “private investor” from St. Cloud, according to Delta, who is listed as the partnership manager. During the sale process, which took about 45 days, the Daggetts were approached by J & B Wholesale & Distribution of St. Michael ( “They called and asked if they could be one of our customers, and ended up being the only customer,” Daggett said. Michael J. Altimari, project manager for J & B Group (which includes J & B Wholesale & Distribution as well as J & B Cold Storage), said the plant should be up and running by April 29, and will have an initial staff of two employees. Altimari said the company’s interest in the Detroit Lakes facility was piqued by its size and condition. “With the growth of our business, it was a good fit to lease space to handle our increased storage space needs,” he added. The plant contains 1.77 million cubic feet of refrigeration space. It also has four truck loading docks. Altimari said Thursday that the facility will be used to store fresh cut and frozen steaks, tray-packed pork and other meat products, including poultry, chicken, fish and beef. Public cold storage could be available for lease as space allows, he indicated. “This will be a USDA-inspected facility,” Altimari added. J & B Group, Inc., is most well known as the parent company of “No Name Steaks.” It also distributes “Midwest Pride”-brand value-added meat products. Established in 1979, the privately held company began as a distributor of meat products to retail grocery stores and meat markets. J & B currently has a workforce of roughly 400 employees, according to Altimari. The plant’s former owner has an equally long and distinguished history. A Wheaton native, Swedberg studied engineering at the University of Minnesota in the Twin Cities, worked as a combat engineer during World War II, and later with the Army Corps of Engineers. His experiences led him to a career as a contractor, and in 1950, he moved from Minneapolis to Detroit Lakes to start up his own construction business. “I wanted to move to a smaller town to raise a family (and start a business),” he said. He succeeded, both personally and professionally. Though his wife passed away in 1999, two of their three children, Alan Swedberg and Nancy Hayle, still live in the lakes area, while daughter Diane Lundberg lives in Branson, Mo.