Bellingham Cold Storage is in the process of being acquired by a Michigan-based cold storage giant.
In a letter sent to employees on March 4, Doug Thomas, the president and CEO of BCS, wrote that BCS had signed an agreement to be acquired by Lineage, a real estate investment trust that operates temperature-controlled warehouses across the U.S. and internationally.
“Please trust that this acquisition does not signal a departure from who we are and the values we have oriented ourselves to at BCS,” Thomas said in the letter. “Lineage has built a winning culture that is deeply rooted in shared values … Those attributes, and their alignment to what we hold most important, are a big part of why we chose to sell to Lineage, specifically.”
Neither BCS nor Lineage would respond to a request for comment about the pending sale.
BCS has been a staple on the Bellingham waterfront since it first opened its warehouse and ice production facility in 1946. It’s one of the largest cold storage and frozen food processing facilities on the West Coast. It opened two warehouses in Skagit County in early 2024.
Lineage says it is the world’s largest temperature-controlled warehouse network, with 488 warehouses across 19 countries as of December 2024. The company had humble beginnings starting with opening one warehouse in Seattle. By 2010, it had become the third-largest U.S. cold storage company.
Lineage brought in $5.3 billion in revenue last year, according to filings made to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
“We are poised to execute on our robust acquisition and development pipeline,” said Greg Lehmkuhl, president and CEO of Lineage, in the filing. Since 2020, 79 acquisitions have been made.
Lineage also had one of the biggest initial public offerings on the stock market in 2024, when it became a publicly traded company in July.
The BCS acquisition is anticipated to close in June 2025, according to a memo from the Port of Bellingham. Port commissioners will hear a presentation at their upcoming meeting on Tuesday, March 18, about the deal.
That’s because BCS signed a 50-year lease extension at its location on the Bellingham Waterfront last September. Lease provisions require Port approval if there’s a change in ownership of more than 30%. BCS supports approximately 1,200 year-round jobs and generates more than $600 million in annual commerce.
Thomas said in the letter shared with employees that he would plan to stay on as an advisor when the acquisition closes and work with Lineage during the transition period.
If the acquisition goes through, it will be the second public warehouse Lineage owns in Whatcom County. In 2019, Lineage bought Preferred Freezer Services in Lynden. It also runs a distribution center in Ferndale.
Annie Todd is CDN’s criminal justice/enterprise reporter; reach her at annietodd@cascadiadaily.com; 360-922-3090 ext. 130.
