Kentucky-based controlled environment agriculture company AppHarvest has finalized a sale-leaseback of its Berea, Ky., indoor leafy greens farm to its marketing and distributing partner, Mastronardi Produce, for just over $127 million, according to a news release.
The sale includes an initial lease rate of 7.5% over 10 years. A portion of the proceeds from the sale-leaseback will repay a $30 million bridge loan from Mastronardi Produce to AppHarvest, along with the first two years of prepaid rent at the Berea farm, according to the release.
Mastronardi Produce markets and distributes AppHarvest’s entire line of produce, which includes leafy greens, along with tomatoes, cucumbers and strawberries.
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At the same time as the sale-leaseback of its Berea farm, AppHarvest has opened a fourth location, a 60-acre high-tech indoor farm in Richmond, Ky., growing Campari brand tomatoes. The first harvest is anticipated in early January.
Half of the Richmond tomato farm currently is planted, with the other half slated to be planted in 2023. The January Campari tomato harvest marks the first time AppHarvest is expected to have commercial shipments delivered from each of its four indoor farms.
“The AppHarvest team has worked relentlessly this year to get the four-farm network operational, and those efforts have paid off with the quadrupling of farms in our network and diversifying our crop set,” AppHarvest founder and CEO Jonathan Webb said in a news release. “The team is now focused on operations to ramp up production and revenue from the four high-tech farms.”
Related news: Mastronardi funds AppHarvest to grow greens, expand farms in Appalachia
In 2022 alone, AppHarvest has opened two other CEA farms: a 30-acre strawberry and cucumber farm in Somerset, Ky., and a 15-acre leafy green facility in Berea, Ky., according to the release.
AppHarvest is shipping strawberries under the WOW Berries brand and washed-and-ready-to-eat leafy greens under the Queen of Greens brand. In its third growing season, the AppHarvest Morehead farm has further diversified its crop, adding snacking tomatoes sold under the Sunset brand as Flavor Bombs and Sugar Bombs.
