By Margaret Sutherland
After signing the region's largest industrial lease since 2020 and one of the biggest industrial lease deals ever recorded in the Philadelphia market, California-based canned beverage maker DrinkPak has started construction on its new East Coast manufacturing facility spanning 1.4 million square feet.
The build-to-suit facility for the largest canned beverage contract manufacturer in North America will anchor the Bellwether District, a 1,300-acre commercial redevelopment project on a former refinery site in southwest Philadelphia.
Chicago-based real estate developer HRP Group, formerly Hilco Redevelopment Partners, bought the site located along the Schuylkill River near Interstates 95 and 76 out of bankruptcy in 2020 and rebranded it as the Bellwether District, a large master-planned industrial campus positioned to attract logistics and advanced manufacturing users.
The waterfront site provides access to the Port of Philadelphia and I-95, providing shipping connections to DrinkPak's brand customers in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and upper Midwest regions. The company's clients include such popular beverages as White Claw, High Noon, Monster Energy and Celsius.
DrinkPak plans to invest at least $195 million in the new facility, with the opening planned in 2027. The Philadelphia plant will join its two other U.S. locations, both also 1.4 million-square-foot facilities, one in the beverage firm's home city of Santa Clarita, California, and another in Fort Worth, Texas.
The large-scale beverage production and packaging plant will feature modern manufacturing operations to can energy drinks, sodas, teas, juices, waters, protein beverages, seltzers, beer, wine and spirits in a wide range of can sizes and packaging formats. The new plant will hum with four high-speed filling lines, each capable of producing up to 3,000 cans per minute. The facility will also include an automated variety repacking line to produce multi-flavor cartons and trays at speeds up to 2,000 cans per minute.
Additional building features include a 15,000-square-foot 40°F cooler, a 22,000-square-foot office and 40’ clear height. The facility shell will pursue Leed® Silver certification.
Arco National Construction is partnering with its repeat client to construct the beverage manufacturing facility. Arco also built DrinkPak's 1.4-million-square-foot facility in Fort Worth, Texas.
