When V. Paulius & Associates VicePresident Kip Kramer was a child, herecalls, there was only one frozen food aislein the grocery store. Today, it is not uncom-mon to see several aisles in a store dedicat-ed to frozen foods. The growth of thefrozen food industry has benefited V.Paulius & Associates, which designs, con-structs and leases cold storage facilities.

Kramer began working for the generalcontractor when he was 15. During his

tenure, he has witnessed the growth inboth the frozen food and cold storageconstruction industries. “The construc-tion industry, as far as cold storage isconcerned, is growing,” Kramer notes.“We’ve got a lot of food users as clients.”

V. Paulius & Associates designs andbuilds facilities that the company ownsand leases to clients for cold storage dis-tribution. “We’ll build wherever we haveto,” Kramer says. “While we’re in thethird-party construction industry heav-ily, we own 12 of our own buildings.”

Park PlaceIn addition to buildings, V. Paulius &Associates owns industrial parks through-out the country, including in New York,

Ohio, Georgia and Florida. Clients oftensuggest where they would like a facilitybuilt. The company locates the land andsometimes purchases additional acres if itdecides to pursue an office park in the area,Kramer says. From there, the contractorconstructs the facility and leases the build-ing to the client.

Many of the parks are situated neartransportation hubs – an asset to meetdistributors’ needs. Port Carteret, aunique industrial seaport complex inCarteret, N.J., offers access to all majornational and international modes oftransportation. A direct access road linksPort Carteret to the New JerseyTurnpike, one of the primary routes inthe state. Port Carteret also has

V. Paulius & Associates www.vpa.com2009 sales: $50 millionHeadquarters: Allendale, N.J.Employees: 30Services: Design/build/ and general contracting

v . p a u l i u s & a s s o c i a t e sp r o f i l e

Old-fashioned Service+ New Jersey-based V. Paulius & Associates prides itself on offering clients a full slate of services, including designto construction. By Vicki Martinka Petersen

“We’re ahead of the curve of whatother cold storage [ contractors ] do

in terms of products and services.”> Kip Kramer, vice president

New specialty meat Cut Shop for BuckheadBeef NE – A SYSCO Company, Edison, NJ

b & c n o r t h e a s t s u m m e r 2 0 1 0

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deep-water anchorage located on theArthur Kill, which is part of New YorkHarbor and adjacent to Port Newark,Port Elizabeth and the Atlantic Ocean.

Upon completion in 2012, the 184-acresite will be home to 2.1 million square feetof industrial space within seven buildings,including White Rose Foods, a groceryfood distributor that occupies two of thebuildings in the industrial park. V. Paulius& Associates constructed both facilities,consisting of an 800,000-square-foot dryconventional storage building and300,000 square feet of frozen foods stor-age warehouse.

Customer RelationsV. Paulius & Associates considers itself oneof the few actual design/build firms. “Whatdifferentiates V. Paulius from its competi-tors is this old-fashioned general contractorapproach,” Kramer explains. “We meetwith the customer, locate property, secure alease agreement and move into the build-ing, all using in-house professionals andconstruction crews. It’s really start to finishfrom the design to turning over the facilityonce it’s built.”

While most general contractors hiresubcontractors, V. Paulius & Associatesprides itself on having its own crew. Formost jobs, the company hires only a fewsubcontractors for specialty areas suchas electrical and mechanical.

Another advantage is the companyowns portable concrete plants. Kramersays this helps the company meet itsdeadlines by not having to work aroundan outside plant’s schedule and helpsmaintain quality controls on its concretetilt-up walls and floors. “We set up our-selves to handle all capacities in moderndistribution warehousing/processingconstruction to accommodate today’shigh cube distribution and complex pro-cessing centers,” he adds.

‘Ahead of the Curve’Like with many companies, the poor econ-omy continues to be a challenge for V.Paulius & Associates. Kramer notes it is

difficult to secure financial deals for per-spective tenants because many banks arenot lending right now. “We’ve had bankingrelationships dating back 40 years,”Kramer says. “It’s much different for themnow. A whole new set of rules are applied tofinancing.”

Despite this challenge, V. Paulius &Associates continues to meet its clients’needs. One project the contractor com-pleted last month is the renovation of theBuckhead Beef (Sysco) food processingfacility in Edison, N.J. Originally a dry

warehouse, the newly renovated 50,000-square-foot facility consists of 23,000square feet of cold storage areas, 15,500square feet of production areas and 11,500square feet of office areas. The USDA facil-ity processes specialty cut meats for finerestaurants.

“It’s probably the most modern pro-cessing facility in the nation,” Kramersays. “We’re ahead of the curve of whatother cold storage [contractors] do interms of products and services com-pared to what we offer customers.”

Published by Schofield Media Ltd. Tel: 312.236.4090 Fax: 312.236.4266On behalf of V. Paulius & Associates © 2010 Schofield Media Ltd. All rights reserved.

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Before and after aerial photos ofPORT CARTERET, An IndustrialSeaport Complex, Carteret, NJ.