From lager to lumber: Landmark West Palm Beach building gets new owner
The former West Palm Beach headquarters of a beer distribution company has found new life as a warehouse for a nationwide lumber supplier.
On Oct. 25, Boise Cascade paid $31 million for the former Brown Distributing office and warehouse complex at 1300 Allendale Road. Boise Cascade supplies wood for residential and commercial construction.
Brown Distributing, in business for more than 100 years, shut down the West Palm Beach facility in 2021 as part of the sale of its distribution territory to two companies.
But the family behind Brown Distributing kept the West Palm Beach site, which features a 120,000-square-foot warehouse. The building is a well-known landmark on the west side of Interstate 95 just south of Belvedere Road.
Purchase of property by Boise Cascade a sign Palm Beach County real estate keeps booming
After two years of trying to lease or sell the space, the family last week sold the nine-acre site to Boise Cascade.
The Fortune 500 company, headquartered in Boise, Idaho, is one of the largest producers of engineered wood products and plywood in North America. It also is a leading U.S. wholesale distributor of building products.
The site's switch in ownership from a family-owned beer distributor to a national lumber warehouse is a sign that Palm Beach County's booming real estate industry is not slowing down, said Robert Smith, executive vice president of CBRE, a commercial real estate brokerage that represented the Brown family.
As developers continue to build homes, office buildings, shops and hotels, wholesale building products are in great demand. So is warehouse space needed to store these supplies.
"This is another example of building materials companies doing very well," Smith said.
In a statement, Boise Cascade said the company's building materials distribution division bought the facility to boost the company's commitment "to our valued customers in the South Florida market.”
More: Prime West Palm Beach warehouse could lease to e-commerce company
The Brown family and its long history with beverages
The sale marks the end of a long history between the Brown family and West Palm Beach.
Brown Distributing has been operating in West Palm Beach since 1984. When the building went up for sale or lease in 2021, the site had never been on the market before. E-commerce buildings eyed the property, but no deals were completed until now.
Brown Distributing began in in 1919 as a soda-bottling business in Richmond, Va., according to the company's website.
Larry Brown, grandson of one of the company's founders and current president of the company, was described as "instrumental" in expanding the business to Florida by buying an Anheuser-Busch franchise in Palm Beach County in 1984.
Brown's sons in turn began working for the company and expanded its reach into non-alcoholic drinks. The company bought a microbrew and specialty import distributor in 2009, which would expand its footprint south to Key West and kick off its Specialty Division.
Two years later, the company bought an Orlando-based microbrew distributor, a move that would help the company distribute to customers throughout the state of Florida, the company's website said.
Offerings from a number of local Palm Beach County breweries were distributed by Brown, including Tequesta Brewing Co. and Steam Horse Brewing Co.
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Today, Brown Distributing concentrates on beer, cider and other beverage distribution in Virginia, according to its website.
Alexandra Clough is a business writer and columnist at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at aclough@pbpost.com. Twitter: @acloughpbp. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Landmark Brown Distributing building in West Palm Beach gets new owner
