1. The four families of temperature-controlled storage
Temperature-controlled storage covers very different realities according to the range targeted. Every degree lower costs exponentially more, in construction and in operation alike.
- Ambient: temperature uncontrolled, or held between +10 and +30 °C with the seasons. No refrigeration plant, simple cladding with natural or light mechanical ventilation.
- Chilled, 0 to +8 °C: for fresh produce, dairy, charcuterie, fruit and vegetables, pharmaceuticals. Reinforced insulation, conventional refrigeration plant, a floor resistant to moisture.
- Frozen, −18 to −25 °C: for freezing and holding frozen goods. Very thick insulation, a mandatory anti-frost heated floor, high-capacity refrigeration plant, and the risks that come with ammonia.
- Multi-temperature: several zones at distinct temperatures in one building, ambient plus chilled plus frozen. The most complex: zone separations, centralised plant, management of losses between zones.
2. Technical and economic comparison
| Criterion | Ambient | Chilled, 0 to +8 °C | Frozen, −18 to −25 °C | Multi-temperature |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Construction ratio excl. VAT | 410 – 670 €/m² | 720 – 1,030 €/m² | 1,030 – 1,440 €/m² | 1,240 – 1,850 €/m² |
| Wall insulation thickness | 100 mm, simple cladding | 120 – 150 mm cold-store sandwich panels | 180 – 220 mm rigid insulation panels | 200 – 250 mm plus zone separations |
| Floor | Reinforced concrete slab | Slab with moisture resistance | Slab plus mandatory anti-frost heating | Heated floor plus zoning |
| Structure | Standard steel portals | Strengthened portals for roof insulation loads | Strengthened portals plus cold-condition design | As frozen, plus internal separations |
| Refrigeration plant | None | Chilled plant, condensers, evaporators | High-capacity plant, ammonia or fluorinated refrigerant | Multi-level central plant, separate circuits |
| Doors and lobbies | Standard sectional doors | Fast-acting insulated doors plus thermal lobby | High-seal fast doors plus double lobby | Multiple lobbies with an airlock per temperature zone |
| Installed electrical capacity | 1× base | 3 – 4× base | 5 – 7× base | 6 – 8× base |
| Annual energy cost | The reference | × 4 to 6 | × 8 to 12 | × 10 to 15 |
| Construction contingency | 5 – 8 % | 10 – 15 % | 12 – 18 % | 15 – 20 % |
The energy line: the real differentiator over 20 years
The energy cost of running a frozen store is 8 to 12 times that of an ambient warehouse of the same area. Over 20 years that difference often exceeds the construction cost itself.
A 10,000 m² frozen store typically consumes 2,500 to 4,000 MWh of electricity a year, an annual bill of 375,000 to 600,000 € at 0.15 €/kWh before tax. Over 20 years: 7.5 to 12 M€ of energy charges.
That is why any serious investor in frozen storage must reason in whole-life cost, capital plus operating, and not in construction cost alone.
3. A detailed comparison: 10,000 m² ambient against frozen
To make the comparison concrete, here is a budget breakdown on 10,000 m² in a standard configuration, 10 m to eaves, 10 docks, 500 m² of offices. Amounts exclude VAT, in provincial values, excluding land and fees.
| Item, on 10,000 m² | Ambient (€) | Share | Frozen (€) | Share | Difference (€) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Foundations and slab | 700,000 | 14 % | 1,100,000 | 10 % | + 400,000 |
| Structure and roof | 1,600,000 | 32 % | 1,800,000 | 16 % | + 200,000 |
| Insulation and cladding | 450,000 | 9 % | 2,000,000 | 18 % | + 1,550,000 |
| Refrigeration plant | 0 | 0 % | 2,800,000 | 25 % | + 2,800,000 |
| Insulated doors and lobbies | 120,000 | 2 % | 550,000 | 5 % | + 430,000 |
| Electrics and capacity | 280,000 | 6 % | 950,000 | 8 % | + 670,000 |
| Offices and changing rooms | 250,000 | 5 % | 280,000 | 2 % | + 30,000 |
| Internal external works and roads | 350,000 | 7 % | 380,000 | 3 % | + 30,000 |
| Sprinklers | 200,000 | 4 % | 200,000 | 2 % | 0 |
| Sundries and revisions | 250,000 | 5 % | 750,000 | 7 % | + 500,000 |
| Contingency, 8 % and 15 % | 400,000 | 8 % | 1,590,000 | 14 % | + 1,190,000 |
| TOTAL EXCL. VAT | 4,600,000 € | 100 % | 12,400,000 € | 100 % | + 7,800,000 € |
| Ratio €/m² | 460 €/m² | 1,240 €/m² | × 2.7 |
The table reveals where the premium concentrates: the refrigeration plant represents 25 % of the total budget of a frozen store, against 0 % in an ambient warehouse. Insulation comes second at 18 %. Those two items alone explain 80 % of the cost difference between the two types.
4. Whole-life analysis: what the capital cost does not say
An investor comparing construction costs alone takes an incomplete decision. A cold store generates operating costs far above an ambient warehouse, energy, maintenance, replacement of the refrigeration plant, which must enter the return analysis.
| Item over 20 years, 10,000 m² | Ambient | Chilled | Frozen | Multi-temperature |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Construction capital cost | 4.6 M€ | 8.5 M€ | 12.4 M€ | 16.0 M€ |
| Logistics equipment capital cost | 2.0 – 4.0 M€ | 2.5 – 5.0 M€ | 3.0 – 6.0 M€ | 4.0 – 8.0 M€ |
| Energy over 20 years | 0.8 – 1.2 M€ | 4.0 – 6.0 M€ | 8.0 – 14.0 M€ | 12.0 – 18.0 M€ |
| Maintenance over 20 years | 0.5 – 1.0 M€ | 1.5 – 3.0 M€ | 2.5 – 5.0 M€ | 3.0 – 6.0 M€ |
| Plant replacement over 20 years | 0 | 1.0 – 2.0 M€ | 2.0 – 4.0 M€ | 3.0 – 6.0 M€ |
| TOTAL WHOLE-LIFE, 20 YEARS | 8 – 11 M€ | 17 – 24 M€ | 28 – 41 M€ | 38 – 54 M€ |
| Whole-life cost per m² per year | 40 – 55 € | 85 – 120 € | 140 – 205 € | 190 – 270 € |
Reading the whole-life cost changes the analysis. A 10,000 m² frozen store represents 28 to 41 M€ over 20 years, against 8 to 11 M€ for an ambient warehouse of the same area. That economic reality justifies market rents two to three times higher for frozen storage: it is not rent-seeking, it is the recovery of a structurally higher whole-life cost.
5. The decisive technical choices
The refrigerant: ammonia or fluorinated gas?
Large frozen stores mostly use ammonia as the refrigerant: cheaper to run, better energy efficiency, and outside the scope of the fluorinated gas regulations. But ammonia is a toxic fluid subject to the classified installations regime, which imposes separation distances, permanent detection and an emergency procedure. Its design premium is 15 to 25 % over fluorinated systems, amply recovered in operating costs within five to eight years.
The anti-frost heated floor: mandatory in frozen stores
In a frozen store the temperature under the slab can fall below 0 °C and freeze the ground, causing heave. A heated floor, a network of hot water pipes or electric elements under the slab, is mandatory. It costs 20 to 40 €/m² of slab, that is 200,000 to 400,000 € on 10,000 m².
Rigid insulation panels: the cold-store standard
Cold store walls are insulated with rigid-core sandwich panels of thermal conductivity around 0.022 W/m·K, two to three times better than mineral wool. Standard thickness is 120 mm for chilled and 200 mm for frozen. These panels cost 40 to 70 % more than the standard cladding of an ambient warehouse, but their life and their thermal performance have no equivalent.
6. The regulation specific to cold
- Classified installations: any cold store exceeding certain thresholds of refrigerant or stored product falls under the regime, declaration, registration or authorisation according to the threshold. Processing takes 6 to 18 months.
- Fluorinated gas regulation: greenhouse-effect refrigerants are being progressively phased out. New installations must use low global-warming-potential fluids, with a trend towards ammonia, carbon dioxide or propane according to scale.
- Reinforced fire safety: rigid insulation is combustible, so cold stores need adapted high-sensitivity sprinklers and reinforced fire separations.
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In summary
A frozen store costs 2.5 to 3 times more to build than an ambient warehouse of the same area, and 4 to 5 times more over 20 years on a whole-life basis. Three items concentrate most of the construction premium: the refrigeration plant at 25 % of the total, the reinforced insulation at 18 %, and the installed electrical capacity, five to seven times that of an ambient building. The anti-frost heated floor and the insulated lobbies are mandatory items often under-estimated. The 20-year whole-life analysis, capital plus energy plus maintenance plus replacement, is indispensable for any investor in frozen storage: it reveals operating charges that often exceed the initial capital cost.
Reference basis of the figures
These bands are orders of magnitude for framing, and their reference market is the Paris region. They serve to place a budget at the earliest stages and to compare building types with one another. They replace neither a tender exercise nor an estimate prepared on drawings, and they are not a record of prices actually charged.
The bands on this page are stated in January 2026 values. They were updated from January 2024 values using the BT01 all-trades index published monthly by INSEE on its 2010 base: 130.8 in January 2024, 134.7 in January 2026, a rise of about 3 %.
To bring them forward, apply the usual revision formula: updated value = page value × (BT01 for the month in question / 134.7). The index has kept rising since: it stood at 138,3 in June 2026, the last value published when this page was checked, that is 2,7 % above the reference base.
BT01 measures contractors' input costs, wages and social charges, materials, plant and energy, not the prices actually tendered. The two series diverge as soon as margins move: over 2024 the BT01 rose by 0.9 % while the construction cost observed by the SDES survey rose by 2.1 %. These bands remain orders of magnitude, to be set against an estimate specific to the project.
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Sources: the BT construction cost indices published monthly by INSEE on its 2010 base, used to update the figures · construction cost statistics from SDES, the statistical service of the ministry responsible for construction · regulatory texts published in the Journal officiel and consolidated on Légifrance for the requirements cited.