If you’ve recently had a cup of coffee at a restaurant, convention center, casino, or other institution, there’s a very good chance it was Farmer Brothers coffee.
And, if it was, it came from the company’s state-of-the-art headquarters and production facility in Northlake, the Denton County city to which Farmer Brothers relocated last year from its longtime home in Torrance, California.
Farmer Brothers President and CEO Michael Keown proudly shows off the company’s new headquarters in Northlake. [Photo by Lance Murray]
The 535,000-square-foot facility sits along Interstate 35W, directly across from Texas Motor Speedway. It’s a location executives say fits their needs to build the company that was founded in 1912.
“It really checked every box.”
Michael Keown on the Northlake location
“It really checked every box,” President and CEO Michael Keown says, of the location that enhanced the company’s ability to import 24 million to 28 million pounds of coffee beans a year — mostly from Central and South America — roast them, and ship the finished product all across the nation.
That happens thanks to a 125,000-square-foot roasting plant and a 315,000 distribution warehouse.
FARMER BROTHERS IS ENVIRONMENTALLY CONSCIOUS
Inside the headquarters, employees are encouraged to visit the Public Domain for a cup of coffee to drink while they work. The coffee shop-like area features hot- and cold-brew coffees that can be made via multiple types of machines and coffee makers.
Environmentally conscious, Farmer Brothers’ headquarters facility was constructed with 10 percent recycled materials, and is expected to receive LEED Silver certification.
Daniel Cifuentes, left, producer relations coordinator, and Molly Laverty, director of sustainability, talk business over coffee in near their cubicles. They are sitting under light fixtures made from recycled cardboard. Employees were allowed to give ideas about how the cubicles would be built and utilized during planning for the new headquarters. [Photo by Lance Murray]
KEY PLAYERS
General Contractor: EMJ Corp.
Project Architect: RGA Architects of Roanoke
Headquarters interior design: Gensler & Associates
Construction Program Management: Faithful + Gould
Real Estate: Stream Realty
Farmer Brothers new headquarters building sits on Interstate 35W in Northlake, directly across from the Texas Motor Speedway. [Photo by Lance Murray]
BY THE NUMBERS
535,000 SF
Total size of Northlake headquarters and distribution facility
125,000 SF
Total roasting room space
Approximately $90 million
Total cost of construction
110 miles
Amount of wiring used for equipment controls in the roasting plant
16 million pounds
Green bean warehouse storage capacity
1 mile
Length of coffee transportation conveyors
750,000
Approximate number of construction labor hours to build the facility
GALLERY
Photos by Lance Murray
Beautiful coffee pots, carafes, and freshly roasted coffee beans are used in the Public Domain area.
Gerard Bastiaanse, senior vice president of marking at Farmer Brothers, shows off the Public Domain area where employees can go, brew a fresh coffee, and either relax or do work. The table in the foreground is make of coffee tree wood.
A multi-tiered meeting area on the first floor of Farmer Brothers’ new headquarters features lots of wood and stairs next to the seating. Staff meetings and evens are held in the area that sits adjacent to employee eating areas.
A modern coffee roaster, left, sits next to a roaster from the early 20th century in the Pilot Plant area of the Farmer Brothers headquarters.
A version of this article appeared in the Dallas-Fort Worth Real Estate Review, Spring 2018.
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