Mark Anthony Brewing’s (MAB) expansive, new 1.3-million sq. ft. brewing, packaging and logistics facility is one of the largest breweries to be built in the U.S. in more than 25 years. It produces approximately 80 million cases per year of White Claw Hard Seltzer, Mike’s Hard Lemonade, Mike’s Harder Lemonade and Cayman Jack Cocktails.
Design-builder Clayco, along with its design subsidiary Lamar Johnson Collaborative, performed the turnkey design, engineering and procurement and construction of four facilities on the sprawling campus — the main brewery/logistics/warehouse facility, wastewater treatment plant, guard shack and fire pump equipment building.
Turning Challenges into Opportunities
Speed to market was imperative for the client as they would be brewing product within one year of design kickoff. Clayco utilized direct procurement, large scale tilt up concrete construction, and shift work sequencing to maximize speed to market while minimizing cost. Without design build, it’s doubtful the project team would have been able to achieve the aggressive schedule. The team ran models, energy simulations, etc., on the actual products to be installed by the OEMs, resulting in real-time energy modeling, estimation and simulation.
The team also encountered an abundance of unsuitable soils during grading and quickly had to pivot to find borrow operations from undeveloped areas of the site. They turned this into an opportunity by placing the soils in a 10-acre corner of the site to create a sloping pavilion for employees, including a nature area, frisbee golf course and horseshoe pit.
Sustainability and green design were overriding concerns throughout. When the Owner expressed a desire for a stronger structure that could one day support the weight of solar panels, Clayco worked quickly with its structural engineer to create a preliminary cost analysis and offer a solution. For exterior wastewater, a valve system to discharge waste and stormwater is heavily automated to sense rain events and ensure proper environmental discharge of wastewater versus stormwater.
Unlike most industrial facilities that look and feel heavily industrial in their structural and design aesthetic, MAB’s main brewery corridor comes with a high-polish, epoxy coat finish. There are composite architectural metal panel accents on the building exterior, polished concrete floors and high-end signage denoting production spaces. The optimal aesthetics present a polished and professional corporate image to visitors. Despite the odds, the team produced a facility with high-end aesthetics, on budget and in an abbreviated period of time.
Design-Build Team
| Client/Owner: | Mark Anthony Brewing Inc. |
| Design-Build Firm: | Clayco |
| Architect: | Lamar Johnson Collaborative |
| Engineer: | Clayco Design & Engineering |
| Specialty Contractors: | Concrete Strategies, iENG Mechanical, Clary Hood & Associates, SC Steel, Southern Painting |
| Owner Advisor: | KPMG |
| Project Cost: | $178.2 Million |
| Construction Duration: | 9.5 Months |
