May 2016 — Retail Properties Quarterly —
Page 13
Avery Brewing opened a destination
facility in Gunbarrel in February 2015.
The 23-year-old company found itself
bursting at the seams at its Boulder
location about four years ago and set
out to build a new facility, said Ray
Decker, Avery Brewing’s general man-
ager.
The 5-acre plot features a 67,000-sf
brewing/production facility. Inside the
facility, in addition to the production
area, is a 5,000-sf restaurant that is
spread across two floors, the ground
floor features the taproom and the
upstairs space features a traditional
restaurant setting, Decker said.There
is a patio that seats about 60 people as
well.
Alex Avery’s vision was for the brew-
ery to be 100 percent transparent,
Decker said. He achieved this by build-
ing a catwalk that spans the produc-
tion floor, allowing guests to walk out
at any time during the day and watch
what they’re making.
The opportunity for transparency in
a retail setting, in one form or another
– Avery’s catwalk, windows facing into
the production area, specialty tours,
etc. – helps build brand and identity in
a crowded market.
Leasing Suggestions
If a retail landlord is interested in
acquiring a brewery, distillery or win-
ery as a tenant, there are several things
to keep in mind. First, be prepared for
the tenant to have contingencies that
they must have in order to commit.
Similar to procuring a liquor
license, these tenants must have a
lease signed before they can submit
to the local and regional authori-
ties, as well as submit to more far-
reaching authorizes – label approval,
for example. All these approvals
could take six to nine months before
the deal is ready to go, Heckel said.
And most of these leases will have a
clause that says, “If these approvals
don’t happen in X amount of time,
then the deal is off.”
“The advice to the landlord is if you
have that building that would work,
then you need to be prepared for a
time of uncertainty for that deal to
actually be approved by the different
authorities,” Heckel said.
There also are important consider-
ations for the lease.
“You have to be aware of the nature
of the tenants that you’re taking on,”
said Justin Pless with Pless Law Firm
LLC. “You see a lot of these places in
retail, and that’s all well and good,
but there are different concerns
because of the production compo-
nent. It’s sort of a hybrid thing.”
When attempting to marry the
industrial and retail, it is important
to remain mindful of the other retail
tenants in the center. The lease must
address certain production side
effects that could disturb the other
retail tenants, such as unwanted
noise and odors, he said.
Parking is another important con-
sideration. Not only are the parking
demands less consistent than tra-
ditional retail, but also partnerships
with food trucks create more parking
challenges. Food trucks in a retail
center present a bigger possibility of
problems than a food truck-brewery
partnership at a stand-alone or
industrial facility, Pless said.
A few other important consid-
erations for converting traditional
retail into alcohol-production spaces
include building modifications, such
as higher clear heights, and increased
capacities for water, power and
utilities. Zoning also can be an issue,
depending on the municipality.
However tricky the details appear,
the trend of alcohol producers mov-
ing into retail space will continue.
One of the driving factors for this is
the shift in consumer demands to
favor locally sourced and craft-style
products that focus on quality ingre-
dients, said Strunk.
“I think that it’s wonderful to see
this kind of adoption of the local
brewer in the community,” said Heck-
el. “It’s something that is a little bit
unique to Colorado and is something
that we should be excited to be a part
of and embrace this change.”
s
Market Driver
Photo courtesy Wood’s High Mountain Distillery
The tasting room at Wood’s High Mountain Distillery in Salida brings in close to 60 percent of the distillery’s revenue and takes
up about 20 percent of the 4,000-square-foot building.
