Dole opens warehouse at Port of Wilmington

Dole opens warehouse at Port of Wilmington    Fruit giant Dole Food Co. Monday opened its new $16 million warehouse at the Port of Wilmington.
   The 92,267-square-foot warehouse is located on 5.5 acres near the Dole container yard. The company said the new facility will increase its refrigerated warehouse space at the port by 57 percent. Dole signed a 15-year lease for the expanded property.
   To finance the project, Dole received $12 million from the State of Delaware and $4 million from the Delaware River and Bay Authority.
   “We are very pleased with the addition of Warehouse H to our operations in Wilmington. The new warehouse will enable us to expand our local operations, improve refrigerated space consolidation and utilization, and to make federal inspections of fruit cargo more efficient, timely and cost effective,” said Richard J. Dahl, Dole’s president and chief operating officer.
   In 2005, Dole, through its ocean carrier Dole Ocean Cargo Express, said it discharged nearly one million tons of tropical and Chilean fruit at the Port of Wilmington.
   The new warehouse is anticipated to generate over 150 additional jobs within the region.