Walmart buys Riverside cold-storage hub to tighten grocery supply chain

Walmart Realty spent $223 million to buy a 507,000-square-foot cold-storage facility at 1001 Columbia Ave. in Riverside, turning a long-term lease into direct ownership of a building it had used since 2010 for temperature-controlled distribution. For store teams, the point is not the property transfer. It is the freight flow: a refrigerated node that helps keep produce, meat, dairy, frozen food and seasonal grocery items moving into stores with fewer temperature problems, fewer emergency reorders and less shrink risk when Southern California heat or holiday demand strains the system.

The facility sits on more than 25 acres and is less than four miles from the Interstate 215 and California State Route 60 and 91 interchange, making it a well-placed link in the Inland Empire logistics network. Built in 2010, the site includes 120 trailer stalls, 98 dock doors and about 22,500 square feet of office space. Those details matter to associates on the receiving side: trailer capacity, dock access and quick turn times can decide whether chilled freight gets unloaded on schedule or backs up in the yard. Ownership gives Walmart more control over maintenance, upgrades and long-range planning at a property that already sits inside its operating model.

That control fits a broader pattern. Walmart said its grocery network supports more than 4,600 stores, and the company said it operated 164 U.S. distribution centers as of January 2025, with more than 70% owned rather than leased. Walmart has also said it continues to add technology to facilities to improve speed, capacity and reliability across its supply chain. In practice, that can show up in stores as fewer stock gaps, steadier replenishment and a better chance that high-turn fresh and frozen items arrive when departments need them, not after the rush.

The Riverside site matters even more because the Center for Land Use Interpretation has described it as Walmart’s refrigerated warehouse for perishables distributed to stores across California, while noting that only a few of Walmart’s U.S. distribution centers have cold storage. Broker commentary on the deal pointed to continued demand for temperature-controlled logistics space in the greater Los Angeles basin, where refrigerated capacity is scarce and tightly watched. For hourly associates, department managers and assistant managers, the downstream effect is straightforward: a stronger cold-chain hub can mean fewer scramble moments at the store, smoother receiving and a better shot at keeping fresh food on the shelf when customer traffic spikes.