How Craft Breweries Are Helping to Revive Local Economies
- 6 years ago
How Craft Breweries Are Helping to Revive Local Economies
The Northeast, Midwest and West still represent much of the industry,
but 36 states doubled their production of craft beer from 2011 to 2016, according to Mr. Barnett, who last year wrote “The Craft Beer Guidebook to Real Estate,” a JLL report.
“We are having an impact on the community, for sure,” said Ricardo Petroni, a co-owner of Equilibrium,
which opened in 2016 in a former meatpacking plant that had been seized over nonpayment of taxes.
They like early-20th-century buildings with up to 10,000 square feet
and lofty ceilings, said Sandy A. Barin, a vice president with the commercial real estate firm CBRE based in Minneapolis who counts brewers among his clients.
From densely settled Brooklyn to small towns by the Canadian border, the breweries include the Newburgh Brewing Company, which occupies an 1850s former box factory; Battle Street Brewery, in a former train station in Dansville, near the Finger Lakes;
and Pressure Drop Brewing in Buffalo, in a former barrel factory.
The building that houses Equilibrium, for instance, was sold to the brewery for $260,000, with $225,000 of
that forgivable if the brewery remained in business for at least five years, said Mr. Petroni, who along with his partner, Peter Oates, invested $1.4 million to upgrade the property.
Usually renters instead of owners, breweries in Minneapolis typically sign five-year leases
and pay $4.50 a square foot annually, Mr. Barin said, although tenants are usually on the hook for renovations, even if landlords offer credits for finishes like paint and carpeting.
“When we moved here, you could see old scars of bad times,” Mr. Petroni added, “but you can tell that now, new things are flourishing.”
Across the country, in once-bustling manufacturing centers, breweries are giving new fizz to sleepy commercial districts.
The Northeast, Midwest and West still represent much of the industry,
but 36 states doubled their production of craft beer from 2011 to 2016, according to Mr. Barnett, who last year wrote “The Craft Beer Guidebook to Real Estate,” a JLL report.
“We are having an impact on the community, for sure,” said Ricardo Petroni, a co-owner of Equilibrium,
which opened in 2016 in a former meatpacking plant that had been seized over nonpayment of taxes.
They like early-20th-century buildings with up to 10,000 square feet
and lofty ceilings, said Sandy A. Barin, a vice president with the commercial real estate firm CBRE based in Minneapolis who counts brewers among his clients.
From densely settled Brooklyn to small towns by the Canadian border, the breweries include the Newburgh Brewing Company, which occupies an 1850s former box factory; Battle Street Brewery, in a former train station in Dansville, near the Finger Lakes;
and Pressure Drop Brewing in Buffalo, in a former barrel factory.
The building that houses Equilibrium, for instance, was sold to the brewery for $260,000, with $225,000 of
that forgivable if the brewery remained in business for at least five years, said Mr. Petroni, who along with his partner, Peter Oates, invested $1.4 million to upgrade the property.
Usually renters instead of owners, breweries in Minneapolis typically sign five-year leases
and pay $4.50 a square foot annually, Mr. Barin said, although tenants are usually on the hook for renovations, even if landlords offer credits for finishes like paint and carpeting.
“When we moved here, you could see old scars of bad times,” Mr. Petroni added, “but you can tell that now, new things are flourishing.”
Across the country, in once-bustling manufacturing centers, breweries are giving new fizz to sleepy commercial districts.