NEWARK, New Jersey (WABC) — People in New Jersey are raising one last glass to an iconic brewery which will soon close its doors for good.
It’s an end of an era for the 75-year-old Anheuser-Busch brewery, which is moving out of Newark early next year.
The company says efforts to modernize led to the decision. Residents of Newark have a mixed reaction to the plant saying “goodbye.”
The City of Newark once had 26 beer making plants, including the big ones like Ballantine Beer. So, this is the end of an historic chapter in the city’s history.
“Newark was the seventh in the nation when it came to state production of beer, 2.5 million barrels of beer a year,” said NJIT history professor Neil Maher. “It was one of the major industries of this city.”
Newark was once the home of a large German population.
The Anheuser-Busch facility right off of Route 1 and 9 was built in 1951. It is one of the company’s oldest brewing locations in the country. Beer was a major part of the city’s manufacturing economy going back to 1875, due to water from the Passaic River and hops and grains from upstate New York.
During prohibition, Newark residents made it clear; they wanted their beer. Today, the plant is a symbol of a once glorious past.
“Newark is in a moment of rebirth and that we have to say goodbye to some old industries,” Maher said. “But there’s a lot of new, new, industries happening, new things happening here in Newark.”
The location has now been purchased by the Goodman Group and will become a manufacturing and logistics facility.
Anheuser-Busch is closing two other facilities in New Hampshire and California. A spokesperson for Anheuser-Busch states, “we will support the approximately 475 full-time employees currently working at these three facilities by offering all of them a full-time role elsewhere in our U.S. operations.”
Those who stay will get a severance package, but the long-standing site will soon become part of Newark’s history.
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