Bottoms up.
Goodman North America Management LLC has acquired the iconic 1.7 million-square-foot Anheuser-Busch brewery plant in New Jersey from Anheuser-Busch for $360 million.
Goodman, an Australian-based industrial real estate owner, developer, and manager with its North American office in Irvine, closed the deal in April, according to CoStar.
Goodman paid about $43.6 million for the buildings and $317 million for the land at 200 US-1 in Newark, CoStar said. The property covers 83.6 acres near Newark Liberty International Airport.
Goodman officials have said they plan to redevelop the 86-acre Newark site into a top-tier industrial manufacturing, distribution and logistics facility. The company did not respond to requests for more information.
Newmark Group represented Anheuser-Busch, the St. Louis-based brewer. The buyer’s brokers were not named.
“Few sites offer this level of scale, connectivity and zoning flexibility,” said Newmark Executive Vice Chairman Adam Donegar, one of the advisors for Anheuser-Busch in the deal, in a news release.
“These characteristics, combined with its location within one of the nation’s most critical logistics corridors, position it to support the next generation of industrial and infrastructure users.”
CoStar property data shows Anheuser-Busch remains as a tenant.
$2B to Modernize Beer Plants
The deal closed about six months after Anheuser-Busch announced plans to sell the New Jersey brewery plant to Goodman late last year.
In recent years, Anheuser-Busch, based in St. Louis and known for brands like Budweiser, Bud Light, and Michelob Ultra, has been consolidating its operations.
The company has invested nearly $2 billion to modernize its 100 or so manufacturing plants across the country in response to changing consumer habits and economic challenges.
When the Newark brewery sale was announced in December, the company also said it would close brewery plants in Fairfield, California, and Merrimack, New Hampshire.
Goodman’s Plans
For Goodman, acquiring one of the largest industrial redevelopment sites in the New York metro area adds another major asset to its growing portfolio.
As of May, Goodman Group owns more than 445 properties worldwide, valued at about $58.3 billion across five continents. A few months ago, the company also started building a 140,000-square-foot data center in Vernon.
The Class C facility, built in 1951, is next to Newark Liberty International Airport and Port Newark, putting it in one of the country’s key logistics submarkets.
CoStar reports that Goodman paid a premium for the property, spending about $212 per square foot, which is higher than the West Newark submarket’s 12-month average of $145 per square foot for industrial properties.
