Notable: Safety was the Top Priority with Animal Health Tenant Improvements

Animal Health International is a leading distributor of products, technologies and equipment for livestock producers, veterinarians and agriculture retailers. When the company outgrew its Liberty, MO, warehouse and distribution facility, they doubled their space by moving a quarter of a mile down the road to our Liberty Heartland Logistics Center, where they are leasing 255,000 square feet.

Housing everything from vaccines to pharmaceuticals to feed ingredients and more, Animal Health required a temperature-controlled facility as well as designated spaces for flammable and combustible materials. As a result, the tenant improvements we completed focused heavily on ensuring product, employee and public safety.

We worked hand-in-glove with Animal Health as well as a fire consultant, the local fire department and other city officials, engaging in close communication, coordination and collaboration to ensure the facility met both the client’s specialized storage needs and all applicable code requirements. Together, we worked to interpret and apply current hazardous materials storage standards, biosecurity protocols and construction regulations to design and build three specialty storage rooms, including an H3 room for combustible products, an H4 room for corrosives and highly toxic substances and a flammable liquid room for aerosol containment. Each space required unique, highly technical and carefully engineered and implemented solutions ranging from custom-engineered ventilation systems and integrated spill containment strategies to enhanced fire resistance assemblies.

As a matter of course, we install pre-cast wall panels in nearly all our industrial facilities in the Midwest at no additional cost to our clients and tenants. These wall panels were used in our construction of Liberty Heartland, providing the thermal resistance of R-13 insulation and minimizing the cost of further upfitting the warehouse to its required thermal resistance. We also installed air conditioning throughout the entire facility.

Animal Health required a cooler in which to store vaccines, antibiotics, insulin and other medications. We built out a 10,000-square-foot cooler with insulated metal panel walls and partnered with a specialty subcontractor who installed the necessary rooftop HVAC system.

Tenant improvements also included completing 8,500 square feet of office space, including a primary office with a large break room, a kitchenette, a conference room and separate restrooms for office and warehouse employees. We also completed two shipping and receiving offices on the warehouse floor with an attached bathroom.

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