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发帖数: 29846 | 1 Campbell Soup ready to take bids on Sacramento land
Dennis McCoy | Sacramento Business Journal
By the end of the month, Campbell Soup Co. plans to seek sealed bids for the
Sacramento plant it is closing for good this summer. The South Sacramento
site encompasses 128 acres.
The Campbell Soup Co. expects by the end of the month to begin seeking bids
from potential buyers for the Sacramento plant it is closing this summer.
At least one of the bidders is a familiar name in Sacramento’s business
community. Entrepreneur Warren Smith, who cofounded the Sacramento River
Cats and CleanWorld and who leads a group that recently purchased a
professional soccer franchise, confirmed Monday that he’s part of a group
that’s been trying to buy the south Sacramento site of 128 acres.
Campbell Soup confirmed that it has enlisted commercial real estate
brokerage CBRE to assist with selling the Franklin Boulevard property. CBRE
will conduct a sealed bid process, Campbell spokeswoman Carla Burigatto said
. Details of that process are still being determined, but she said the bid
process likely will begin by the end of March.
Local commercial real estate brokers expect a fair amount of interest from
prospective bidders. Several brokers said they’ve received calls from
potential investors seeking guidance.
“I think it's a great piece of property,” said Mark Demetre, an industrial
broker with Jones Lang LaSalle.
The biggest and best use of the site would be to continue using it for food
processing, he said. If not that, the Campbell property could be used, he
said, for a mix of retail, industrial and housing.
Just the industrial land — not counting any value from the buildings —
could be worth more than $20 million, Demetre said.
Smith said he would like to turn the Campbell site into a clean tech plant
for food processing. Multiple food processing companies could share the
plant.
“We’ve definitely talked to some who might have interest,” Smith said.
His group made an offer for the property 1½ months ago, but it was
rejected. “Apparently it wasn’t one they liked,” Smith said.
His group will try again through the bidding process, he said.
The site has a lot going for it: 1.1 million square feet of cold storage, a
cogeneration plant, air credits, a water discharge permit, and groundwater
rights. It also is served by a rail line, is close to freeways and several
airports, and it has access to multiple electric transmission lines.
Many of the key opportunity areas identified in the Next Economy, which is
the region’s economic revitalization framework, are available right on this
site, Smith said. They include food/agriculture, clean energy technology
and advanced manufacturing.
Smith said his concern is keeping the jobs, whether his group is selected in
the bid process or not.
Before Campbell, which produces soup, sauces and beverages, announced last
September that it would close the factory in phases, the plant employed 760
full-time workers. The average hourly pay is $20. That means the Campbell
closure could cost $4 million in payroll, Smith noted.
“We can’t afford to lose that. We just can’t,” he said.
In a first phase of layoffs, Campbell has cut 290 jobs. Another 320 workers
will be let go by May 1, and the final 150 employees will be done by July 1.
The closure will mark the end of a six-decade run for one of the region’s
best-known manufacturers.
The Campbell plant was built in 1947 and is the oldest facility for the
company in the United States. Most of the production will shift to plants in
North Carolina, Ohio and Texas. |
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