In San Antonio, indoor farming company Soli Organic Inc. recently announced the opening of its new “indoor vertical farm.” Built on the site of the former Brooks Air Force Base, the facility measures approximately 140,000 square feet and is packed into six vertical layers of increasing capacity in 100,000 square feet of production space, along with 40,000 for processing and packaging. Soli says it uses a “soil-based cultivation system” and robotic automation to produce a variety of organic salad greens and herbs while using 90% less water than traditional farming.
Lead construction was San Antonio-based Joeris General Contractors. Delivering the project was akin to building “a box within a box,” says Nick Burke, vice president of Joeris’ industrial division. Adding to the challenge is that “each independent grow room has different environmental requirements,” says Burke. “So you’re trying to have those rooms ready in a timely manner and in certain conditions” for each crop that’s going to be grown. The controls for the lighting had to be exactly precise because the farm “controls down to the actual spectrum of light that [each] the plant grows best under it.”
Photo courtesy of Joeris General Contractors
Burke says Joeris’ team realized early on that coordination would be key. “The biggest challenge was coordinating all the different things that needed to be placed in different parts of the building and coordinating their timely delivery,” he says. “We had a lot of coordination meetings.”
“In today’s economy, consumers want value, and that’s what our new San Antonio facility is designed to deliver,” says Matt Ryan, CEO of Soli Organic. “This high-tech farm will provide retailers and consumers with fresh, organic produce grown right here in Texas and is already delivering our best yields to date.”
