Liquidator to sell Anchor Steam brewery after sudden closure 

After the sudden announcement of Anchor Steam’s closure this week, a company representative confirms that the Potrero Hill property that held its brewery operations for over 40 years will be sold, along with a tasting room across the street.

“It will be out on the market,” Anchor Steam spokesperson Sam Singer said via email, adding that the liquidator will make the determination on when it will be listed and at what price.

Recent property tax records from PropertyShark indicate that the value of the real estate could be close to the $85 million that Tokyo-based brewing giant Sapporo paid for America’s oldest craft brewery in 2017.

Located at the corner of Mariposa and De Haro in Potrero Hill, across from Jackson Park, the brewery, offices, tasting room and an adjoining parking lot sit on four parcels altogether. All the parcels are zoned for production, distribution and repair. 

Among the parcels is 1705 Mariposa, with nearly 56,000 square feet over five stories. It  has housed the company’s brewing facilities since 1979. According to property tax statements from 2022-2023, that one-third acre of land alone is worth almost $7 million and the building value is just over $13 million, for a total market value of $20 million. 

The adjoining parcel has over half an acre with a parking lot as well as an L-shaped two-story building from 1950, with nearly 34,000 square feet. The total value on that parcel is over $35 million, according to property taxes.

Across the street, 495 DeHaro is a 1960 one-story building with an outdoor patio that holds the Anchor Public Taps tasting room, as well as pop-up taco shop Frank Grizzly’s, on half an acre. Next door at 330 Carolina is a parking lot with some water tanks and other industrial supplies on three-quarters of an acre. Property tax records put the combined value of both parcels at over $23 million. 

Anchor Steam had tried for several years to salvage its business, “but the impacts of the pandemic, inflation, especially in San Francisco, and a highly competitive market left the company with no option but to make this sad decision to cease operations,” Singer said in a statement. Last summer Anchor Steam, which began in 1896, limited its distribution to California, which accounted for 70% of its sales, and canceled its very popular Christmas Ale for the first time since it was introduced in 1975. 

The closure announcement this week said that the company has stopped brewing but will continue distributing the beer it has left through the end of the month or whenever supplies run out. Anchor Public Taps will also remain open temporarily to sell its remaining inventory, including a limited amount of the Christmas Ale it had started before canceling it.

Sapporo had been trying without success to find a buyer for the brewery over the last year, according to SFGate, and it’s possible interest from the beer industry could emerge during the liquidation process.

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