Heineken sells historic Caledonian Brewery site

Heineken has sold Edinburgh’s historic Caledonian Brewery site to the property developers Artisan Real Estate.

The historic 1.9-acre brewery in Shandon will be turned into new homes and, according to local reports, the developer has already submitted its Proposal of Application Notice with a public consultation scheduled to be held on 7 February 2024.

Prior to Heineken closing the the Caledonian Brewery in 2022, it was Edinburgh’s last major brewery. The brewery, along with its B-listed Victorian buildings, reportedly used traditional brewing methods and open square fermenters and direct-fired copper kettles.

Despite passing through a range of ownerships during the past two centuries, the brewery was most recently operated by Heineken from 2008 after it had been acquired as an assets of then owner Scottish and Newcastle. However, in May 2022, Heineken announced the closure of the Caledonian Brewery and placed the site on the market, leaving the historic buildings vulnerable to property developers.

Speaking about the Caledonian Brewery site, Artisan’s regional director David Westwater said that he intended to build “around 170” “one, two and three bed apartments through to duplex units and mews houses”.

Speaking about the agreement to sell the Caledonian Brewery site, a Heineken UK spokesperson said, “We are pleased that a developer of Artisan’s pedigree and experience will now take the site forward” and assured that the new plans for the building would soon meet “the varied demands of modern and sustainable city centre living”.

“As this process unfolds, we encourage community members to actively contribute to the dialogue which will shape the future of the Caledonian Brewery site,” reports quoted the spokesperson as saying.