Brooklyn Brewery May Hop On Over To Industry City Or Brooklyn Navy Yard
Brooklyn Brewery may be hopping southwards to the Brooklyn Navy Yard or Industry City.
The news comes as these two locations, in Wallabout/Fort Greene/Clinton Hill and Sunset Park, respectively, are undergoing a manufacturing and business boom that Williamsburg no longer enjoys as much of.
However, Brooklyn Brewery still has nine years left on its current lease at 61-71 Wythe Avenue, noted Crain’s New York Business, so it’s unclear what a possible timetable would be like. But according to company COO/general manager Eric Ottaway, “we know our ability to renew is zero” since rents have risen and buildings are being transformed into luxury commercial and residential units.
Another reason: the company is aiming to “bring [their] manufacturing closer to the ports in the city” since their business overseas is booming. Staten Island will also be benefiting from these changes, with one of the company’s brewing plants moving there eventually, away from its current upstate New York digs in Utica.
The brewery, famous for its namesake lager, currently has space in Williamsburg. According to Eric Ottaway, the company’s chief operating officer and general manager, it is searching for as much as 60,000 square feet. Brooklyn Brewery is looking at the Navy Yard and Industry City as a potential spot for its brewing operations. The firm has been searching for space in the borough to relocate its manufacturing facilities.
The bulk of Brooklyn Brewery’s beer is made upstate in Utica, but the brewery has held onto its Brooklyn location because it is essential to its brand and is where it makes most of its specialty beers. The Williamsburg facility on North 11th Street, at 61-71 Wythe Ave., functions more than just as a brewing factory; it offers a tasting room and retail shop and gives visitors a chance to watch beer being made. Ottaway said the company wants its new location to serve a similar purpose.
“What is tricky is finding a space where we can do the manufacturing but also have the retail be an important component,” Ottaway said. “It’s hard to find a neighborhood that has the level of visibility that Williamsburg has.”
If Brooklyn Brewery does eventually come to Industry City, it will join food, fashion, the Brooklyn Nets training facility, and a bounty of other businesses who have relocated there and continue to do so.
If the suds company eventually comes to the Navy Yard, it will have good company. As announced by out sister site Fort Greene Focus a couple of weeks ago, Russ & Daughters is also coming to the site as an anchor tenant to Building 77’s future food court and community home.