Anheuser-Busch looking for buyer for Kingsmill resort
Attention: Anyone with a hankering for golf and perhaps $44 million burning a hole in their pockets.
Kingsmill Resort and Conference Center in Williamsburg, Va. is up for sale.
We find this interesting, because we used to work in the vicinity of the beautifully-manicured resort, which is owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev. The resort is increasingly looking like a relic from the days when Anheuser-Busch didn’t mind being in the theme-parks and resort business. (Days which are departing rapidly, with the sale of the company’s SeaWorld and Busch Gardens theme parks.)
Kingsmill officials said the company has “hired a commercial real estate broker to explore options for potential sale of the property,” which local authorities reportedly assess as worth more than $44 million. (Of course, we’re not sure how the recession and real-estate shrinkage will affect that number.)
The firm of CB Richard Ellis will provide “sales transactions and assessment services” to the resort, in addition to marketing the property and representing the company in negotiations with potential buyers, according to a letter to residents from Robin Carson, executive vice president at Kingsmill.
The company said it had only just begun the process of looking for a new owner. The announcement came shortly before the Blackstone Group, a private equity firm, announced that it was buying Anheuser-Busch’s amusement parks for as much as $2.7 billion.
“Kingsmill is a world-class resort property renowned for its natural beauty, first-class facilities and unparalleled service,” Carson said. “We have just begun this process, but our intention is to sell the property if appropriate terms can be met.”
Carson said the company’s goal is to find a buyer who will “enhance long-term value and maintain the Kingsmill assets in accordance with a premier resort property while also recognizing the crucial role our employees play in making this resort so exceptional.”
She said there is no set timeline for a sale, and added that there was no guarantee that a sale would occur at all.
The announcement comes on the heels of Anheuser-Busch InBev’s move to not renew its sponsorship of the Michelob Ultra LPGA tournament at Kingsmill. An Anheuser-Busch executive told Lager Heads late last month that the decision to drop the tournament was “very, very difficult” but still justified because it was “very expensive” to be the owner-operator of the tournament.
“We’re looking at return on investment,” said Dan McHugh, A-B’s vice president of media, sponsorship and activation, in that interview. “And more importantly, the [Michelob Ultra] brand’s strategic direction.”
McHugh was talking about a specific brand, but he might as well have been discussing the company’s overall strategy. Quickly and rapidly, Anheuser-Busch InBev is shedding its ancillary operations and becoming a “pure-play beer company,” as our colleague Jim Gallagher put it.
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Jeremiah McWilliams is a native Virginian who came to the Post-Dispatch in early 2007 to cover beer and other consumer products. He previously covered manufacturing for the Virginian-Pilot newspaper in Norfolk, Va. He is a graduate of Washington and Lee University. 
Amazing that the largest U.S. brewer is now Sam Adams? Since AB and Miller have no loyalty to the U.S. should residents of the U.S. have any loyalty toward them? Drink MicroBrews!!!! They are better anyway.
“burning a whole?” Fix it, fast! Before the haters get here!
A longtime A-B slogan goes, “Making friends is our business.”
You can make a lot of friends in Washington when you own a resort within an easy drive or flight.
The CSX railroad has its Greenbrier, in White Sulphur Springs, WV. I’d keep Kingsmill.
One by one, the things that made A-B a primo company and a great place to work are disappearing. I’m totally into microbrews…too bad Trailhead isn’t bottling their fine products.
Does this really surprise anyone. Buy AB, then recoup some of the purchase price by selling off non brewery related properties. My last AB product was the day before the sale as I knew they would no longer be an American brewery. Sam Adams is good and has a lot of variety and I’m revisiting the Coors line of brews as well (long time since college). For those that still work for AB (InBev), I’m sorry to disappoint you, but glad you still have a job.
Looks like not only are a lot of really good remaining employees leaving… but other good things about A-B. Now that I am hearing…and seeing the decline of the company…. I am no longer sad to be gone since they cut a couple thousand of us in December. I still have a LOT of brand loyalty, but that mostly comes from growing up in STL near the brewery. I’m beginning to sample other beers and some are really not so bad!
cjstl,
its not haters , just not loyal anymore, At least brito listen. Last year at the wholesalers meeting it was “Want a beer go down to the bar and buy one, Want food , not here.” This year there was free beer and food every where. on campus at the concert and out at the other locations. Maybe Brito has learned a lesson and will start listening to the true Experts with the American way.
localvoice…. lemme get this straight. You won’t drink AB products anymore, because they’re not an American brewery, but you will drink Coors, who is part of MillerCoors, which is a joint venture between MolsonCoors (Canada) and SABMiller Africa.
Brilliant…. or not.
I agree, lonely. I’ve been to the Kingsmill Resort and it’s beautiful and serene. I just hope if someone buys it, they’ll keep it as nice as it has been.
Brito is pure and simple, a business man……He understands what is best for his bottom line, and the primary business of InBev….B E E R…..all the rest is simply fluff, that was squandered by the past management, as part of their greed , and for their play toys…….. Now InBev , no longer a STL. Home TOWNER….will simply fade into other areas of the Country: NY: Exec. Headquarters, Colorado: Brewing, Belgium: World Headquarters, STL……?????: Just another company moving away…….