The sale of 7352 Industrial Blvd., which includes the 907,610-square-foot factory built in 1972 that sits on a 92-acre property, closed Jan. 30 for about $36.5 million, according to Lehigh County property records. Kraft Heinz spokesman Michael Mullen confirmed the sale process is now complete but said the company had no additional comment.
The new owner, as expected, is Ridgeline Property Group of Atlanta, which has publicly detailed its plans to demolish the plant and build two 730,080-square-foot warehouses in its place. Ridgeline is budgeting for two tenants per warehouse.
The company’s plan received conditional use approval from Upper Macungie supervisors in October. At that time, Daren Martocci, the township’s director of planning and zoning, said the next step will require a land development plan from Ridgeline that will be reviewed by the township planning commission before supervisors get the final say.
Chris Ciliberti, who oversees the Northeast region for Ridgeline, was not available late Wednesday afternoon to provide an update on the company’s plans. But, on July 20 in front of the township planning commission, he said the firm does not have tenants lined up for the warehouses, which would be built on a speculative basis.
The property became available after Kraft Heinz — created by the merger of Kraft and H.J. Heinz in summer 2015 — in November 2015 announced it would close its Upper Macungie plant and six others in the United States and Canada over the next 12 to 24 months as part of a downsizing that would shed 2,600 jobs. At the time of the announcement, the company employed 415 workers in Upper Macungie.
Source: TheMorningCall
Link: http://www.mcall.com/business/manufacturing/mc-kraft-heinz-building-sold-20170302-story.html