Terrahills builds refrigerated warehouses, freezer facilities, cold chain distribution centres and food processing plants across Ontario. The same non-combustible steel structure and insulated metal panel envelope as our industrial work, engineered for a building whose interior has to hold a temperature every hour of the year.
A cold storage building is an industrial building with three problems a dry warehouse never has. The envelope has to keep heat out rather than in, which puts the vapour barrier on the warm side and makes every joint, dock and penetration a potential condensation and ice point. The floor under a freezer sits on ground that will freeze and heave unless the slab is heated or ventilated, so the slab assembly is engineered, not standard. And the refrigeration plant is a major part of the building, with its own power demand, plant room, roof or yard positions and commissioning, coordinated with the structure from the first drawing.
Food processing adds a fourth: the building is part of the food safety system. Washdown-rated walls and ceilings, sloped floors and drainage, zoned product flow from raw to finished, pest exclusion and cleanable transitions are what an inspector looks at under the Safe Food for Canadians Regulations, and they are far cheaper to build in than to retrofit. Our EU-GMP pharmaceutical facility was delivered to a stricter version of the same discipline: zoned production, cleanable surfaces and documentation prepared for the regulator during the build rather than after.
Ontario's cold chain demand sits where the food is made and moved: the food and beverage manufacturing clusters in Vaughan, Hamilton and Guelph, the distribution corridors of the 400 series highways, and the agri-processing base of Simcoe County and southwestern Ontario. We carry the full scope under one contract: site and utility feasibility, approvals and servicing, structure and envelope, the freezer slab and refrigeration coordination, and commissioning through temperature pull-down.
Six stages, one contract
The same delivery model as every Terrahills project (land, approvals, servicing, structure, envelope, handover) applied to what a cold chain building actually requires.
Power for the refrigeration plant, water and wastewater for washdown, and a sewer-use agreement for process discharge are confirmed before the land is committed. Refrigeration load and process water decide the site as much as the highway does.
Temperature zones, product flow from receiving to shipping, dock design and the food safety program set the plan. The architect, refrigeration engineer and process consultant work as one team so the envelope, slab and plant are designed together.
Site plan, conservation authority sign-off on stormwater, environmental approvals where the refrigerant and plant require them, and the servicing extensions the site needs, carried as one track against the equipment lead times.
Non-combustible steel structure with an insulated metal panel envelope: continuous insulation, the vapour barrier on the warm side, and every joint, dock and penetration detailed against condensation and ice.
Heated or ventilated freezer slab assemblies over insulation, drainage and sloped floors in washdown areas, plant rooms and roof or yard positions built with the refrigeration installer rather than around them.
Envelope, refrigeration and controls commissioned together, temperature pull-down staged to protect the slab and the structure, and the documentation package the food safety inspector and the insurer will ask for.
Markets we know building by building
One sector in one market, with the soils, approvals, funding tiers and pipeline that actually change the job.
Capability Cold Chain
Our EU-GMP certified pharmaceutical facility in Ramara is the closest proof: a zoned, cleanable, regulated environment delivered with the documentation the inspector needed. The Ramara Industrial Park is the structure and envelope. Cold storage applies both to a building that runs cold.
Cold Chain cost bands, Ontario 2026
| Building type | Hard cost, $ / sq ft | Basis | What moves it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Refrigerated warehouse (cooler) | $240 – $320 | 2026 Ontario benchmark, derived | Envelope thickness, refrigeration plant size, dock count and refrigerated dock design |
| Freezer / low-temperature storage | $320 – $420 | 2026 Ontario benchmark, derived | Freezer share of the floor, under-slab heating, blast cells, plant redundancy |
| Food processing plant | Priced per project | Process-driven | Washdown zones, drainage, process utilities and the CFIA program the product needs |
Hard costs only. Land, servicing, development charges, racking, process equipment and the refrigeration plant itself sit outside these bands, and the plant is frequently the largest single line after the building. A Class C estimate against the product, the temperature zones and the site is the only reliable number.
Questions clients ask about cold storage & food-grade construction
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