Lagunitas Brewing Wants to Make IPA in Oakland

Lagunitas Brewing may kick up some suds in Oakland.

The pioneer craft beermaker based in Petaluma has applied for a beer manufacturer’s license at 2001 Maritime Street, home to a 189,000-square-foot warehouse available for sublease, the San Francisco Business Times reported, citing a regulatory filing.

The warehouse, owned by San Francisco-based Prologis, is being marketed by Newmark for sublease through March 2033 and comes with 16,000 square feet of offices and more than 37,000 square feet of refrigerated storage.

In other words: the perfect spot to brew craft beer, only a sublease has not been finalized, Newmark said. The listing offers 5.43 acres of industrial yard for sublease, separately or together.

The City of Oakland leases the 16-acre site to Prologis in a 66-year ground lease. Prologis had recently subleased the warehouse, dubbed Prologis Oakland Global Logistics Center 3, to Custom Goods, a logistics company based in Carson.

In August, Lagunitas closed its 300,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Chicago, following a plan announced in May to move production to Petaluma, 45 miles north of Oakland.

It’s unclear if new production in Oakland would add to or replace the brewery in Petaluma.

Lagunitas and its parent company, Amsterdam-based Heineken, which acquired Lagunitas in 2017, didn’t respond to requests for comment from the Business Times. An unidentified Prologis spokesperson wasn’t aware of a new sublease deal with the beermaker.

The Bay Area’s largest brewery, founded in 1993 by Tony Magee, holds the No. 1 selling draft brand IPA and top five IPA in chain retail. But it has struggled in recent years through layoffs, friction between longtime employees and Heineken, and declining demand for hop-heavy IPAs.

This month, Bernardo Spielmann, former chief marketing officer at Heineken Panama, took over as Lagunitas CEO, replacing Dennis Peek.

— Dana Bartholomew