Cheese Plant For Sale

One of the more interesting listing my guys are working on is a former cheese processing facility in Corona. Here is the website.

The reason why the cheese plant is closing is simple economics.

The supply of milk to make cheese has been severely reduced.

The supply of milk has been reduced because farmers are having a tougher time dealing with the environmental treatment of cow waste. It is not economically feasible to raise cows anymore, at least not here in California.

Plus, land prices have increased dramatically and many cow farmers are selling their land for residential and commercial development. Many of these farmers used to live in Chino, which has been turned into a major industrial warehouse hub. These industrial warehouses are employing more people at higher wages; any jobs that have been lost have been replaced 10-fold.

With the cow pastures, it was fairly easy to find alternative uses. You just have to remediate the soil and then build something else. The land was worth more than any existing buildings.

With the cheese plant, things are more complicated. It is not viable to tear down a multi-million dollar facility and start from scratch. The trouble is finding a user who will benefit from the existing infrastructure and who would also benefit from being in California.

The facility would be ideal for a "green" food manufacturer. Being located in the center of the market would reduce the number of food miles, plus their is an existing co-generation plant on the premises that produces steam and electricity for the facility, reducing carbon emissions.

Putting the right user in place is why the Dairy Farmers of America hired us to sell their property, they knew it would be a challenge and it pays to have great people working for you.

I will let you know who we (or somebody else) sells this building to.

For a walk-through of the plant, here is a good site. It was created by the Golden Cheese Company of California, the previous tenant.