Port St. Lucie - Wednesday April 20, 2022: Food service distributor 'Cheney Brothers' broke ground Wednesday morning on the first phase of a 367,427-square-foot distribution and food storage warehouse in Port St. Lucie. Its being built on SW Anthony F. Sansone Boulevard in Legacy Park at Tradition. Construction is expected to be completed in mid-2023.
Cheney Brothers plans on investing at least $65 million in the facility which will include refrigeration and freezer space, a test kitchen, ancillary offices, 46 loading docks and a fueling station.. The warehouse will employ at least 275 people. The company expects to pay estimated wages per employee in excess of $55,000, plus benefits. That is about 35% higher than the St. Lucie County average wage.
“Cheney Brothers is thrilled to be expanding to St. Lucie County. The Treasure Coast and Space Coast are growing areas and building a state-of-the-art distribution facility in Port St. Lucie will allow us to better serve our customers,” said Cheney Brothers President John Reisigl.
The new distribution center will be constructed on 53 acres fronting Interstate 95, joining FedEx Ground and an Amazon delivery station in the industrial park. When completed, the facility will service the restaurants, clubs and hotels in the region, and provide a safety net for supplies, if needed, when hurricanes strike. The facility is expected to expand by another 155,100 square feet with a future phase and the company owns 9.28 adjacent acres for additional expansion when needed.
Florida's Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis was the guest speaker at the ground breaking. He was joined by city and county officials.
“The city has been looking forward to this groundbreaking for a long time,” said Port St. Lucie Mayor Shannon Martin. “We were working with Project Bullet before the pandemic slowed things down, so today is a special celebration of the future as we welcome this family-run South Florida institution to Port St. Lucie. The Cheney Brothers groundbreaking is another win for our Southern Grove jobs corridor that will further the city’s strategic goal of building a diverse local economy.”
“Our work with businesses interested in locating here in St. Lucie County is exceptionally gratifying when the company is already in the South Florida region and is coming here to grow its footprint rather than relocate existing jobs,” said Pete Tesch, Economic Development Council of St. Lucie County (EDC) president. “Having the opportunity to help bring more than 275 great jobs to Port St. Lucie and to Florida is a huge win for the city, the county and the state.”
Cheney Brothers is a Florida-based, family-owned and operated food service company. It was founded in West Palm Beach in 1925 by Joe Cheney. It has since grown from a regional distributor into one of the largest food service distributors in the South with annual sales exceeding $2.5 billion. The company operates various facilities across Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina, and distributes internationally to more than 100 countries. It stocks over 15,000 everyday and gourmet food service items.
