Polar expanding by 100K sq. ft. on Worcester's Millbrook St.

Photo | Grant Welker The former A. Schulman manufacturing site on Millbrook Street in Worcester

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By Grant Welker

Polar Beverages has agreed to lease nearly 100,000 square feet of space at the former A. Schulman manufacturing plant on Millbrook Street in Worcester.

The lease expands Polar's presence in its longtime home city at a time when the company is riding a wave of popularity of seltzer nationwide. In July, Polar said it signed a long-term franchise agreement with Keurig Dr Pepper that will take Polar to a national distribution.

Lexington-based Stubblebine Co., which announced the lease on Monday, procured Polar and represented the site's owner, the Boston real estate advisory and development firm GFI Partners. For Polar, the former chemicals manufacturing building provides space along an active rail line, similar to its main site off Southbridge Street, and a close proximity to the interchange of interstates 190 and 290.

GFI Partners bought the site at 53 Millbrook St. in March from an entity of LyondellBasell, a chemicals firm with American headquarters in Houston that bought A. Schulman and closed the Worcester site last year.

Polar already occupies more than 313,000 square feet of space off Southbridge Street, where its main offices are also based. It also leases space for shipping and receiving at 26 Southbridge St. in Auburn.

Polar appears bound for a deeper name recognition beyond its New England base with the deal with Keurig Dr Pepper, whose Keurig offices are based in Burlington. Keurig Dr Pepper already had a deal for Polar to manufacture and distribute the coffee and soda giant's brands in the Northeast. The new deal announced this summer expands that partnership by manufacturing, distributing and selling Polar's seltzers in the majority of Keurig Dr Pepper's direct-store delivery footprint.

Polar now has availability in 35% of the national market, according to Keurig Dr Pepper.

Polar, a 138-year-old company run by the Crowley family, is the third largest seltzer seller nationally behind LaCroix and Bubly, according to a Wells Fargo analysis of Nielsen data by The Wall Street Journal.