Johanna Beverage Co. LLC, a privately-owned manufacturer of chilled juices and other beverages, is expected to break ground on a new refrigerated warehouse at its Spokane-area facility in early spring.

The Fleming, N.J.-based company, which makes brands that include Tree Ripe and Washington Natural, currently operates a 116,000-square-foot complex at 5625 W. Thorpe, on the West Plains. The planned new refrigerated facility will include 37,000 square feet of floor space, according to a press release from Fisher Construction Group, the contractor on the project. Fisher Construction is based in Bellevue, Wash., and has a Spokane office in the James S. Black Building, at 107 S. Howard downtown. 

The new refrigerated warehouse will maintain products between 34 and 38-degrees Fahrenheit. Cooper Architects, based in Bellevue, Wash., is the project architect.

The company didn’t disclose the project value, and, as of yet, building permit application information for the project hadn’t been filed yet with the city of Spokane.

Ginny Bode, marketing director for the Fisher Construction Group, declines to reveal the project’s cost and referred inquiries to Johanna Beverage, which couldn’t be reached for comment.

Bode says construction will begin in mid-March and is expected to be finished in August.

In a press release, Johanna Foods President Robert Faccinca says, “We couldn’t be more pleased to work with the Fisher Construction Group to expand our operations in Spokane. Their experience as a builder of food-safe environments for processing and storing is exactly what we were looking for.”

In 2007, Johanna bought former Olympic Foods Inc., then a 41-year-old company located at the Thorpe Road site, and Johanna’s operations have occupied the 116,000-square-foot complex there since then.

Almost one year ago, the Washington state Department of Labor & Industries fined Johanna Beverage Co. $154,000 for a “lack of emergency planning” for its employees after they were exposed to ammonia leaks at the facility in September 2016.

L&I spokeswoman Elaine Fischer says Johanna Beverage appealed the fine within the required 15-day response window, and the appeal is still awaiting review by the Board of Industrial Insurance Appeals, an independent agency based in Olympia, Wash.

Later in 2017, Fischer says the company was fined $1,800 in a scheduled, follow-up review with L&I inspectors.

“The employer did not ensure that operators operating powered industrial trucks use restraint devices, such as seatbelts or lap-bars, when they are provided on the PIT,” says an L&I report.

“Upon inspection, two employees were observed operating forklifts without a seatbelt while moving material within the warehouse,” the report.

Fischer says Johanna Beverage didn’t appeal the citation and paid the fine.