Southwest Beverage Company, Inc. of Lake Charles is building new and building big. “We’ve outgrown our current facility,” reported Ben Marriner, president.

The new facility, built on 17.5 acres, will include 27,500 square feet of office space and 109,500 square feet of warehouse space.

James Mingo, site superintendent of Tanner Equipment, Fort Polk, La., who is doing the current earthwork, said that plans show a building that takes up “about three acres and that Tanner worked to hire local laborers.”

Don’t expect a big gray metal warehouse. The architecture will feature New-Orleans-style elements, tumbled brick and ornamental fencing.

According to Marriner, the new facility at the corner of Broad and Main Street (near the Louisiana Department of Motor Vehicles office and U.S. Post Office) allows for easy to access from both I-10 and I-210.

The architect, HDA Architects (Holleran Duitsman Architects), of St. Louis, Mo. and contractor, Ryan Companies, US, Inc. of Minneapolis, Minn. were selected based on their extensive experience building beverage distribution warehouses throughout the United States, Marriner stated.

Southwest Beverage Company is a third generation beverage distributor, established in 1954 by B.A. Marriner, followed in 1967 by Richard Marriner who remained as chairman until his death

in 2011. Primary owner and President is Ben Marriner who has been in the business since 1982. The Southwest Beverage territory includes eleven parishes in Southwest and Central Louisiana. Corporate offices are in Lake Charles, with warehouses in Alexandria and Leesville.

Currently the company has 204 full time employee/team members, running 24 presale routes, 31 delivery routes, and 4 on-premise dedicated routes serving over 1,100 accounts. Sales have continually exceeded 4.2 million cases since 2008.

The current facility is located at 3001 Industrial Avenue.

The target date for completing the project is in January or February of 2015.Southwest Beverage Company of Lake Charles is building a new facility on 17.5 acres on the corner of Broad and Main streets. The facility will include 27