CBRE lists former Anchor Steam Brewing site for $40M

Historic craft beer facility remains “fully functional,” but property is prime for new uses

CBRE Selected to List Former Anchor Steam Brewing Site 
CBRE's Mike Taquino, Kyle Kovac, Joe Moriarty, Giancarlo Sangiacomo and Kati Thabit; Anchor Steam Brewing site (Digital Sky Photography, Getty)

UPDATED OCT. 13 at 11:45 a.m.:

CBRE is the exclusive listing agency for the Anchor Steam Brewing property in San Francisco’s Potrero Hill neighborhood. The sudden closure and planned sale of the historic 127-year-old craft brewery by owner Sapporo made headlines nationwide when it was announced this past summer.  

CBRE’s Capital Markets team of Mike Taquino, Kyle Kovac, Joe Moriarty, Giancarlo Sangiacomo and Kati Thabit will handle the listing. The agency said it has established a listing price of $40 million for the 2.17-acre property with four parcels along both sides of DeHaro Street, but declined further comment. 

(Digital Sky Photography)

The site includes nearly 110,000 square feet with an industrial brewery space, a tasting room and an office building, as well several parking lots. The brewery was founded in San Francisco in 1896 and became known as “America’s First Craft Brewery,” though it didn’t move into its Art Deco digs until 1979.

(Digital Sky Photography)

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“Brewery operations remain fully functional, with improvements that would be suitable for a new brewery user,” according to a press release from CBRE. 

The press release also notes that the buildings are currently zoned for Production, Distribution and Repair, which can include electric vehicle charging and shipping logistics uses. The city recently expanded the definition of PDR to include lab space. 

Potrero Hill has earned the name Area AI from real estate agents, with AI company Anthropic taking 230,000 square feet at Slack’s former headquarters just last month. 

Investors tried to save the historic brewery, but industrial agents have said that is unlikely, given the value of the land and the difficulties in running a profitable craft beer operation. With its unique architecture, views and prime neighborhood, the possibilities for redevelopment are varied, said Jeffrey Enright, senior vice president of Kidder Mathews’ valuation advisory services, shortly after the sale was announced. 

“There are probably a dozen different scenarios one might think about as far as adaptive reuse of this property goes. Each of those is going to have different metrics and arithmetic associated with each model,” he said at the time. “You could see the marketplace putting a huge spread in prices on this property, depending on what different buyers have in mind for the use of the two sites.” 

Addition: Previous story did not include listing price of $40 million.

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