
Located on Boston’s waterfront, Boston Sword & Tuna’s new flagship headquarters is a model for food safety and cold storage efficiency. A 50-year-old family business, Boston Sword & Tuna imports, processes, and distributes everything from Norwegian salmon and live lobster to Hawaiian swordfish and tuna. After outgrowing its previous facility, the wholesale seafood supplier built a 50,000-square-foot processing center with continuously controlled temperature monitoring and cutting-edge sanitation features.
Nearly double in size from its previous home, the new facility required substantial and refrigerated clean space, with the main floor needing to sustain a chilly temperature of 40 F and the coolers at 38 F. The project management team, Malden, Mass.–based Pilot Development Partners and Waltham, Mass.–based Commodore Builders, brought in Controlled Environment Systems, a Mansfield, Mass.–based specialist in thermal construction and design, to ensure precise environmental specifications.
“When you get into cold storage freezer buildings and cooler buildings, there are all kinds of … ways you have to do things to prevent ice from forming inside of a freezer due to vapor leaks or thermal shorts,” says Ed Montani, a CES sales engineer. Because of this complexity, CES turned to CMC Associates in Quincy, Mass., to handle the design and RJD Associates, Inc., in New York, its trusted Metl-Span distributor, for expertise in metal panel solutions.
For the exterior, RJD recommended CF Mesa insulated metal panels in 6- and 4-inch thicknesses in polar white, regal gray, and igloo white, as well as the 6-inch-thick CF Light Mesa in igloo white. For the interior walls, they used 4-inch-thick CF Partition Walls. Using the same—or very similar—panels helped to simplify construction while adding a striking aesthetic to the building. “We can put panels on in different colors, different orientations, and yet use the same basic type of panel for the partition panel on the inside,” says Rob De Luca, president of RJD Associates, Inc.

Insulated metal panels simplify both the energy efficiency and cleanliness of the new facility. “They provide a good R-value, you can wash them, they're light, they go up quickly, and they are sturdy,” De Luca says.
In addition, the insulated metal panels contribute the building’s safety, and their FM 4880 fire-rating qualifies Boston Sword & Tuna for an insurance discount. “They are foamed-in-place PUR,” Montani says. “The key is the type of insulation, and they're a Factory Mutual Approved panel, which is vital.”
With the new headquarters, Boston Sword & Tuna wanted Safe Quality Food certification, which ensures products meet the highest food safety standards. Metl-Span’s virtually seamless CF Partition Walls helped the seafood wholesaler achieve maximum cleanliness standards. The no-profile partition panels are smooth across the face, eliminating crevices where dirt and other particles might accumulate and potentially contaminate food. The walls can also withstand regular, high-pressure, high-heat washes, which are critical to maintaining food safety.
When the new processing center opened in April 2020, Boston Sword & Tuna introduced a completely automated sanitation system including door foamers, wall-mounted sanitation systems, high-pressure soap systems, and an automated ozonated water system. Located within a five-minute drive from Boston’s Logan Airport, the flagship facility features a flash freezer, live lobster tanks, conditioned shipping areas, loading docks, and office space overlooking Boston.
