Clear Height Properties Executes Sale Leaseback Transaction with Brett Anthony Foods

Three-part transaction allows commercial kitchen to grow to 112,000 SF in Elk Grove

Brett Anthony Foods, in rapid expansion mode since its founding 10-plus years ago, has completed a 15 year sale-leaseback transaction with Chicago-based Clear Height Properties that ultimately will allow the commercial kitchen to more than double the size of its Elk Grove Village operations.

The transactions involved a building Brett Anthony Foods already owned at 1350 Greenleaf and an adject improved property, at 1250 Greenleaf. Additionally, plans call for the development of an approximately 10,000-square-foot structure that will connect the two properties, all while creating a larger, customized Safe Quality Food (SQF) facility.

The total project capitalization, including acquisition, development and tenant improvement costs, is estimated at $16 million.

“We’re excited about this transaction for a variety of reasons, including the ability to help an established and rapidly growing firm realize its expansion plans and the ability to execute creative solutions for our tenant,” says Dominic Sergi, CEO, Clear Height Properties.

Brett Anthony Foods, founded in Northbrook in 2009, operates a custom commercial kitchen that produces fresh, high-quality, ready-made foods in volume daily. The firm serves full-service restaurants, groceries and delis, wholesale distributors, hospitality services and catalog foods companies. Among some of the companies it serves, creating unique food items to sell under private labels include Whole Foods Market, Kroger, Sunset Foods, Schnucks, Fresh Thyme, AmazonGO, and Chef’s Warehouse.

The company currently occupies the 53,831-square-foot, custom-finished building at 1350 Greenleaf. Clear Height Properties acquired that building, along with the adjacent property, a 50,683-square-foot building at 1250 Greenleaf.

This month Clear Height will begin construction of the 10,000-square-foot structure that will connect the two buildings and the build-out/redevelopment of 1250 and 1350 Greenleaf. When completed the approximately 112,000-square-foot facility will allow Brett Anthony Foods to expand its operations in a fully equipped as a freezer/cooler facility to meet production and distribution needs.

“We’ve been working on concepts and plans to expand our facilities for the last 18-24 months, but hadn’t been able to execute on those until Clear Height was able to creatively put the puzzle pieces together,” says Brett Stein, one of the Founders of Brett Anthony Foods. “We looked at expanding the facility we owned or potentially relocating to secure the facility we need.”

Brett Stein said that this is a much better option for the company, in part because the construction can take place in stages, ensuring that the company experiences no down time for food preparation and production operations.

Brett Anthony Foods employs more than 300 people and runs two shifts Monday through Friday and one shift on Saturday.

The brokers involved in the transaction included Jason Lev of CBRE who represented Brett Anthony Foods in the sale of 1350 Greenleaf to Clear Height. Brian Colson of Avison Young represented the seller of 1250 Greenleaf.