A Joint Venture of New Mill Capital LLC (NMC) of Los Angeles (www.NewMillCapital.com) and M Davis Group LLC (MDG) of Pittsburgh (www.mdavisgrp.com) has purchased from Unilever a former ice cream plant in Hagerstown, MD. The 142,000 square foot plant was sold in its entirety, including equipment, after having ceased production in the Fall of 2012. The NMC/MDG joint venture plans to remarket the facility to other ice cream manufacturers and alternative food users who can utilize the plant’s central East Coast location and abundant infrastructure to expand or augment their existing operations.
The transaction closed Friday, May 3, for an undisclosed price. The NMC/MDG joint venture has begun working with the city of Hagerstown and Washington County, MD to identify logical users for the property and put together a package of competitive incentives to help maximize employment at the site. The equipment will be kept on site in the short term to give potential users time to inspect and underwrite the opportunity. If no user is found, an auction for the equipment will occur in August.
“Unilever worked hard to find a buyer with a strong track record of repurposing closed corporate facilities such as our property in Hagerstown, and we are confident we’ve found that group in New Mill Capital and M Davis Group,” said Vincent Santella, Real Estate Director for Unilever in the Americas.
“We are excited about the opportunity that is presented to us with the acquisition of the Unilever plant,” said Gregory Schain, executive vice president of New Mill Capital. “We will be working closely with M Davis Group and local officials to bring quality jobs back to this site. M Davis Group is a leading national expert in providing solutions for underutilized food plants, and the officials we’ve met with from both the City and County have a proactive mindset in helping get this plant back to life. We have a strong team and expect to have a successful outcome.”
Martin Davis, CEO of M Davis Group, shares Mr. Schain’s enthusiasm for the project:
“This is a well built, flexible plant with ample water rights, a high-capacity wastewater treatment plant, low utility rates, and well-maintained process and support equipment,” said Mr. Davis. “Several of my contacts within the food industry have expressed interest in this plant, and we expect to bring economic activity back to the property in the not too distant future.”
NMC and MDG have joint ventured on several projects in the past, including acquiring two Bob Evans Farms plants in Ohio in March of 2013 and packages of personal property from companies such as Diversapack in Monroe, OH and Champion Photochemistry in Rochester, NY.
Dan Hudak of Mackenzie Commercial Real Estate Services brokered the transaction.
ABOUT NEW MILL CAPITAL
New Mill Capital’s forte is providing “comprehensive asset solutions for the industrial marketplace”. Primary services are value-added equipment liquidation and monetization, real estate acquisition and repositioning, webcast and online auctions, and traditional sales transactions. NMC has conducted auctions and/or liquidations for industries ranging from food processing and packaging to steel, semiconductor, cosmetics and textiles. Previous turnkey projects (facility and asset sales) have been provided for National Gypsum in Pennsauken, NJ (200,000 SF); Contract Pharmaceuticals Ltd. in Buffalo, NY (500,000 SF); Kaiser Aluminum in Mead, WA (1.6M SF); National Gypsum in Lorain, OH (200,000 SF); and Sara Lee in Paris, TX (350,000 SF).
*Original article can be found at WSJ.com