Constellation Brands (NYSE: STZ), a Fortune 500 international producer and marketer of beer, wine and spirits with operations in the U.S., Mexico, New Zealand and Italy, invested roughly $50 million to create a home for roughly 300 of its local employees at the historic Aqueduct campus in Rochester.

Employees will begin moving downtown from the Victor location the first week of June. The business provided a tour of the site to select local media, including the RBJ, late last week.

The Aqueduct campus, a national historical landmark at 50 East Broad St. — across the street from the Blue Cross Arena — fronts the Genesee River. The 168,000-square-foot complex sits on 1.43 acres and is topped by a 21-foot, 700-pound statue of Mercury. It formerly housed Thomson Reuters, which vacated in 2019.

Constellation’s new headquarters, housed in six of the eight buildings at the complex, pays homage to the site’s past coupled with modern updates. Company leaders say its new location will not only benefit the business but the city as well.

“I’m excited for our employees and excited for Rochester,” said Garth Hankinson, Constellation Brands’ executive vice president and chief financial officer, from the rooftop terrace of the building, adding “I think this is the best view of the city.”

He noted that the company was facing space constraints at its headquarters in Victor and the new site downtown gives the business ample room for growth.

Hankinson said the majority — more than 300 — of the firm’s more than 500 local employees will move downtown. The company uses a hybrid work model, so the number of employees in the office on a given day will fluctuate.

Since it is the corporate headquarters, representatives of every discipline of the company will be housed there, including finance, legal, IT, HR and marketing.

Constellation will maintain a presence in Ontario County, with up to 200 employees working in the firm’s Canandaigua office, Hankinson said.

Constellation has a 15-year lease to occupy the location in Rochester.

Rob Sands, a non-management director on Constellation’s board and son of the company’s founder, Marvin Sands, was an investor with developers Peter Landers and Jim Costanza in the purchase of the Aqueduct campus for $4.7 million in March 2020.

The developers pledged an additional $30 million at the site and the state provided $4 million through the Excelsior Jobs Tax Credit program in exchange for job creation commitments from the company, according to a news release from New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office when the project was announced.

Constellation’s move downtown complements the city’s multimillion-dollar ROC the Riverway initiative, which includes the Aqueduct Reimagined project.

David Crowe, the project’s architect, said a focus of the Constellation headquarters was to maintain a warehouse feel, honoring the site’s roots, while modernizing the space for today’s needs.

Among the design elements are floor-to-ceiling windows, preserved brick walls and a rooftop terrace with seating that provides sweeping views of the downtown.

Design elements unique to Constellation Brands are also present, from a 3,000-bottle circular wine cellar to the executive conference room that features gold paint on the ceiling, which is a nod to the gold foil on a Modelo bottle. At night, pin spots in the ceiling will look like stars in the sky.

There is also on-site employee parking and plans to operate a restaurant in building eight of the complex, which will be open to the public.

The business — which was founded as Canandaigua Industries by Marvin Sands in Canandaigua in 1945 — ranked as the region’s second largest food and beverage manufacturer on the most recent RBJ list.

Constellation logged annual sales of $9.96 billion in fiscal 2024, driven by its Corona and Modelo beer brands. The company announced the acquisition earlier this month of Sea Smoke, a wine brand based in Santa Barbra County, Calif.

Written by Andrea Deckert at the Rochester Business Journal