Latrobe's City Brewery adds warehouse space, jobs at RIDC Westmoreland

City Brewery has signed a five-year lease for a warehouse and distribution site at RIDC Westmoreland, where it expects to add 50 to 60 jobs.

Those positions will be in addition to 250 at the City Brewery plant in Latrobe, according to company officials.

The move to the East Huntingdon industrial complex comes as City Brewery is “increasing our production operations to support additional customers,” according to the company — which offered no details on who those customers are.

One that it is losing is Pittsburgh Brewing Co., which announced last year its plan to move production of its flagship beers — Iron City, IC Light, IC Light Mango, Old German Premium Lager, American and American Light and Block House Brewing Summer Break — from Latrobe to a new facility at a shuttered PPG glass plant in East Deer.

City Brewery said at the time Iron City represented less than 3% of its business at Latrobe.

RIDC will be the primary site for outbound orders to City Brewery customers while the Latrobe plant will continue to focus on brewing and packaging, according to the company.

“We liked that the space is close to our facilities in Latrobe,” said Zack Mazzoni, City Brewery controller. “It’s a large space with a landlord that has a track record for being flexible and accommodating.”

City Brewery already has moved into the 255,584 square feet included in its lease, which brings occupancy at the 2.8 million-square-foot RIDC to about 76%. The open space is well-suited for warehousing and will require minimal build-out.

“This transaction continues the transformation of RIDC Westmoreland, which now houses over 1,000 employees,” RIDC President Donald Smith Jr. said.

Other tenants at the former Sony television plant include Siemens, ARGO, Intervala, Westmoreland County Community College, Cenveo and DNP IMS America.

“Our continuing partnership with Westmoreland County Industrial Development Corp. has been invaluable in bringing back businesses and jobs to this site and cultivating it into an advanced manufacturing hub,” said Timothy White, RIDC’s senior vice president of development.

RIDC Westmoreland is one of 12 industrial parks developed by the not-for-profit Regional Industrial Development Corp. of Southwestern Pennsylvania.

In addition to Latrobe, City Brewery has facilities in La Crosse, Wis.; Memphis, Tenn.; and Irwindale, Calif., with a total workforce of more than 1,800.

Brewer and bottler locals of the IUE-CWA (International Union of Electronic, Electrical, Salaried, Machine and Furniture Workers - Communications Workers of America) represent 194 workers at City Brewery’s Latrobe plant, while 10 members of the bottler local are at work at the new RIDC site, according to union representative Danny Sallie.