Congo Brands recently acquired its new Louisville headquarters.
The company is relocating its Louisville operations to an existing 110,000-square-foot location at 13551 Triton Park Blvd. It’s moving from its current 18,000-square-foot facility at 7201 Intermodal Drive.
Congo Brands is an employee-service firm that owns brands like Alani Nu, Prime Hydration and 3D Energy Drink. The company was founded by Trey Steiger and Max Clemons.
The deed shows Congo Rebel Base LLC, registered to Clemons, purchased the property for $14 million. The seller was local firm Fenley Real Estate, headed by David Fenley. According to Jefferson County Property Valuation Administrator records, the building was constructed in 2001.
Sam Gray, Brent Dolen, EP Scherer and Sam English of Cushman Wakefield | Commercial Kentucky represented Congo Brands in the transaction.
Gray said in an email Congo Brands also purchased approximately 4.85 acres behind the property with the address of 13549 Triton Park Blvd. The deed for that tract shows the purchase price was $1.2 million.
Congo Brands provided a statement:
Congo Brands has been operating in Louisville for over 5 years now, we started with a single warehouse/office location and have grown to operate some of the biggest names in the CPG space with Prime Hydration, Alani Nu and 3D Energy. We now operate offices in Kentucky, Switzerland and opening our third in Singapore in Q1 2024.
Due to the growth Congo needed to seek an HQ that was large enough to consolidate its total local workforce in one building. We selected Triton Park as the location for our HQ due to the size of the building along with the adjacent land that would allow us to add onto the building in the future as we continue to grow. Our goal is to remodel the building into the premier HQ in Louisville, that allows us to continue to help us attract and retain the best talent in the industry. We hope to begin the remodel process in early Q1 2024 and be completed with the first phase before middle of the year.
Gray said there are two other tenants in the building: Wellcare and PAI International. They will remain through their respective terms.
Justin Baker with TRIO Commercial Property Group represented the seller Fenley Real Estate in the transaction.
Louisville Business First previously reported the investment into to the headquarters will be $8.25 million.
The Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority preliminarily approved a 10-year incentive agreement with the company under the Kentucky Business Investment program. The performance-based agreement can provide up to $7.5 million in tax incentives based on the company’s investment of $8.25 million and annual targets of:
- Creation and maintenance of 500 Kentucky-resident, full-time jobs across 10 years; and
- Paying an average hourly wage of $49.80 including benefits across those jobs.
Alani Nu was launched in Louisville in 2018 by founders Katy Hearn and her husband Haydn Schneider, Clemons and Steiger. It placed No. 8 on Louisville Business First’s Fast 50 list in 2022. It had a 2021 revenue of $228 million. It was No. 3 on the list in 2021, with a 2020 revenue of $68 million.
