Paris Brothers, a Kansas City, Mo., specialty foods company providing warehousing, logistics and distribution services, signed a new lease agreement for more than 500,000 square feet of warehouse, cooler and freezer space spanning four buildings in the underground building of Hunt MidWest SubTropolis.

The new lease accommodates growth of Paris Brothers’ largest warehousing and logistics customer by adding 21,600 square feet of dry warehouse space. In addition, the company added 20,557 square feet of freezer space, which it uses to store everything from commodity foodstuffs to specialty ingredients for local and national clientele.

Paris Brothers originally leased 111,580 square feet of space when the company moved to the SubTropolis in 2000. Since that time, the company has grown numerous times to accommodate expanded divisions in freight expediting, food manufacturing, specialty coffee warehousing, as well as artisan cheese aging and distribution.

“We love it in SubTropolis because, as our space needs have grown, Hunt Midwest has been able to accommodate them without interruption to our business,” says Joe Paris, principal and co-founder. “As we expand our products and services, SubTropolis offers the flexibility to easily and cost-effectively grow right along with us—that’s not something we could do in a surface building.”

SubTropolis’ climate-controlled and humidity-controlled environment is ideal for storing all types of products, especially food perishables, including poultry, meats, fruits and vegetables. The underground location has even contributed to the creation of new products like naturally “cave-aged” cheeses. Trucks are loaded and unloaded inside of SubTropolis, which is protected from the elements and exterior temperature fluctuations.