Our First Distribution Center - Part Two

Elevation from Southwest — A drone image from the west, showing the trucker’s entrance, dock doors and water retention pools. The blue corner on the left is offices and break room. Air conditioners and solar panels are visible on the roof. Some of the landscaping is visible. Photo by Jarrod Schwartz 10-26-21.

Arbitrarily, I set the starting point for Part II of this story, as the date the last wall section was tilted up - 21 October 2020. Phase II was supposed to be the completion of the building, ready for equipment and furnishings. But construction of a plant isn’t often linear. The plant floor was completed in February and logistics equipment began arriving in March of 2021. So, March will be the beginning of Part III; however, I’ve included infrastructure, outside finish work, parking lots and landscaping in Part II, which is now complete.

The roof/ceiling is an underappreciated part of a building; the top half (the roof) is completely out of sight. It catches the rainwater and funnels it

A drone image from the north, showing Employee parking lot north of the building and expansion area to the east. Landscaping mostly in place. Image by Jarrod Schwartz 10-26-21

to the water retention basins. It provides a surface on which the 30 air conditioning units and the 4,000 solar panels sit, it contains the insulation, and most importantly, it helps hold the building together - as the walls and roof/ceiling are bolted together all the way around. On the underside (the ceiling), thirty-six feet above the floor, is the sprinkler system, electrical, data and air lines, the ceiling fans and the lights. Wow, there is a lot to a roof/ceiling system.

The floor is another of those “out of sight, out of mind” components; almost all the important features are hidden under the surface. The 24” lime-stabilized subgrade was created before the wall footings were even dug. Then, after the

Inside the Warehouse – SLT standing on completed floor — This image of the Senior Leadership Team, and three members of the Potterfield family, standing on the completed floor was taken on March 21, 2021.

walls and roof were complete, a 6” layer of base rock was hauled in, graded smooth, and rolled. Finally, the 7” concrete floor, containing 50 pounds of steel fiber per cubic yard - for reinforcement, was poured (under roof) and finished ultra-flat, to accommodate robotic forklifts. Our vision, from the beginning, was a building that would last as long as the pyramids in Egypt; this is it.

The MidwayUSA “Campus” is designed to make a statement of its own. Thousands of people will drive by our campus in the years to come, but never step inside a building, or even onto the campus. What will they think and say about the business that lives there? We hope it’s good!

Larry at Visitors Entrance — That’s me, standing at the visitor’s entrance. Customer Service moved in on December 1, 2021 and Logistics is scheduled for February 2022.