Fire Protection Design Requirements: NewCold Cold Storage Expansion, Lebanon, Indiana

Meta Description: Fire protection design for NewCold's $500M cold storage expansion in Lebanon, Indiana: freezer sprinklers, 141-ft high-bay ASRS, and Indiana's 2010 NFPA codes.

Section 1: Project Overview

NewCold announced in February 2026 a more than $500 million expansion of its cold storage campus in Lebanon, Indiana, in Boone County near Indianapolis. The company describes it as one of its most significant single-phase cold storage developments. It follows more than $300 million already invested across the campus's first two phases, the second of which opened in 2024, and brings NewCold's total investment at the site to roughly $800 million according to state officials.

According to NewCold, the new facility will stand approximately 141 feet (43 meters) tall and include three high-bay areas serving both frozen and chilled temperature zones — the company's first chilled warehouse in North America. It will use automated storage and retrieval systems (AS/RS), pallet stacking and de-stacking systems, pallet exchangers, and a 2D shuttle system. The project is expected to create more than 350 construction jobs and over 200 permanent positions.

From a fire protection standpoint, the building data points to one of the more demanding problems in the discipline: a very tall, fully automated, refrigerated and frozen high-bay warehouse. Temperature, storage height, and automation each constrain the sprinkler design, and they interact.

Section 2: Fire Protection Challenges Specific to This Project

The defining challenge is temperature. Wet-pipe sprinklers cannot serve a freezer; water in the piping would freeze. Frozen zones are typically protected with dry-pipe or, for storage of this value and height, double-interlock preaction systems. That choice carries consequences: NFPA 13 limits water delivery time and system volume for dry and preaction systems, and the storage-mode ESFR sprinklers that protect many ambient warehouses are generally listed for wet systems. In a true freezer, that often pushes the design toward control-mode density/area or in-rack protection rather than ceiling-only ESFR.

The second challenge is height and automation. At roughly 141 feet with AS/RS racks, storage extends far beyond the envelope of any ceiling-only scheme. Protection has to be built into the rack structure as in-rack sprinklers, coordinated so that piping and heads fit the shuttle and crane geometry without obstructing the automation or being damaged by it.

Two more items belong on the list early. Cold storage envelopes are commonly built with insulated metal panels, whose foam cores raise their own fire concerns and detailing requirements. And if the refrigeration system uses ammonia, the machinery room introduces a separate hazard with its own detection and ventilation requirements.

Section 3: Required Systems and Applicable Codes

Indiana adopts its building and fire codes at the state level, and they cannot be amended locally — so the editions in force statewide govern this project directly. The Indiana Building Code (675 IAC Article 13) and Indiana Fire Code (675 IAC Article 22) are the 2014 Indiana editions, based on the 2012 International Building Code and International Fire Code. Indiana adopts NFPA 13 and NFPA 72 by reference at the 2010 edition. Designers should note that the 2010 edition of NFPA 13 predates the expanded automated-storage provisions in later editions, which commonly leads to supplementing the prescriptive code with FM Global Data Sheet 8-9 and AHJ-approved engineering analysis.

Because Indiana works from older referenced editions, the controlling editions must be confirmed for every system before design assumptions are locked.

Section 4: What Designers Need to Think Through

Start by mapping system type to each temperature zone. A chilled zone held above freezing may permit a wet system; a frozen zone does not, which means a dry or double-interlock preaction design and the water-delivery-time and volume limits that come with it. Those limits often dictate how the building is zoned.

Integrate in-rack sprinklers with the AS/RS from the first coordination meeting. Heads, piping, and the automation's shuttles and cranes share the same space, and access for inspection, testing, and maintenance has to be designed in, not added later.

Document commodity classification for the stored food and its packaging, and resolve the refrigeration approach. If ammonia is used, coordinate machinery-room detection and ventilation. Size the fire pump and water supply for tall storage demand, protect risers and underground mains against freezing, and plan smoke removal and fire department access to a 141-foot high-bay. Finally, where the 2010 referenced editions do not address the automated arrangement, document the alternative materials and methods and secure AHJ approval before construction.

Section 5: How ProTech CDS Approaches Projects Like This

Every ProTech CDS design is reviewed by a NICET Level IV–certified principal and stamped by a licensed Professional Engineer, with PE licensure maintained in all 50 states. We deliver on a white-label basis, so our sprinkler, fire alarm, suppression, and BIM coordination work integrates directly into your firm's submittal package under your brand. For cold storage and automated warehouses, that means matching system type to temperature zone, coordinating in-rack protection with the automation, and reconciling the design with the editions a jurisdiction actually enforces. Project documents and design coordination are managed through lockin.protechcds.com.

Section 6: Get in Touch

If you are designing or building a cold storage or automated high-bay facility, contact ProTech CDS to discuss fire protection design, code analysis, and PE-stamped deliverables for your project. Reach us through lockin.protechcds.com.