An iconic brewery that was seen by millions of travelers passing through Newark Liberty International Airport will soon be a memory of the Garden State, as a new logistics center is in the works for the former beer production facility.
CoStar was the first to report fresh details about the sale of the Anheuser-Busch brewery in Newark’s South Ward. The complex closed last year after a run that started in 1951.
When the company first opened its 3.2 million-square-foot facility, it came as the beverage industry in Newark reached its peak and employed thousands of blue-collar residents from Essex, Hudson, and Bergen counties. It was the second-largest Anheuser-Busch facility in the country outside of the company’s main brewery in St. Louis, Missouri, when it launched.
The beer-making giant has now closed on the $360 million sale of its brewery, offloading the property to Goodman North America Management of Irvine, California. The buyers paid $43.6 million for the roughly 75-year-old brewery’s buildings and about $317.4 million for the land they sit on, according to records.
The site spans 87 acres and 3.2 million square feet, and Goodman plans to redevelop the Newark brewery as a logistics and manufacturing center. The company is perhaps best known locally for acquiring a similar former New York Daily News printing plant in Jersey City for $92 million in February 2024, which it is currently redeveloping as a distribution center.
A bit of history will be preserved with the sale despite the building’s impending demolition. An animated neon flying-eagle sign that adorned the property was removed in January and will be displayed at Budweiser’s St. Louis headquarters, according to the company.
The transfer of the Anheuser-Busch facility marks sort of an unofficial end to Newark’s major brewing history. The city once hosted breweries for Ballantine and Pabst, both of which are now being redeveloped into new housing complexes.
