After 26 years in business on North 11th Street, the award-winning Brooklyn Brewery will move its brewery and tasting room to a new building on Wythe Avenue at the edge of the Greenpoint-Williamsburg Industrial Business Zone in summer 2024.
With the lease at their current 79 North 11th Street location ending at the end of 2024, Eric Ottaway, CEO of Brooklyn Brewery, said his team began looking for their next site years ago.
“It takes time to find the right place and put together the right deal. We’ve literally been looking for five or six years knowing that this date was approaching,” Ottaway told Brooklyn Paper. “We’re brewers first and foremost but the more I’ve learned about real estate, the more I’ve come to appreciate that real estate takes a long time to come together.”
The brewery is moving into a 41,000 square feet building with more space and a different configuration than the team is used to, according to Ottaway. With Williamsburg real estate trending upwards 4.9% year-over-year, the deal took over a year to close on.
“When we moved to Williamsburg in 1991, spaces were practically being given away since the neighborhood was considered pretty sketchy,” Ottaway said in a statement. “Obviously Williamsburg has completely transformed, and is now one of the most desirable neighborhoods in the city. The ongoing commercial development of the area puts pressure on the ability of manufacturers like ourselves to remain in the area. However, the IBIA zoning creates mandatory set asides for industrial use, and we are happy that we have been able to work with the owners of 1 Wythe to use the industrial space that has been created in the building.”
Former foreign correspondent Steve Hindy and brewer Tom Potter produced their first batch of Brooklyn Lager together back in 1988 and dropped it off at a Williamsburg bar, according to the Brooklyn Brewery website. A year later, they started shipping their beers internationally — and in 1996, with the help of brewmaster Garrett Oliver, they opened the brewery’s Williamsburg location. Since then, the company has introduced a host of tasty new brews and gained an international following – in 2014, Oliver became the first brewer to win a prolific James Beard Award.
With the help of Nathaniel Mallon, managing partner of Verada who helped arrange the deal, Brooklyn Brewery will remain in the neighborhood it was founded in nearly 35 years ago.
“It just made sense; keep the Brewery in the neighborhood they helped create, fill a zoning requirement for manufacturing space, design and build a top notch facility,” Mallon said in a statement “Brooklyn Brewery was holding out for the right opportunity and we are thrilled to have found the perfect location at 1 Wythe.”
The new location will include the taproom, office space, and brewing and research spaces, according to the Commercial Observer.
Brooklyn Brewery will serve as the anchor tenant of the Wythe Avenue building. Ottoway said that while the brewery received offers from spots across the country, including sites in the Brooklyn Navy Yard and Bushwick, they are excited to stay in the neighborhood they call home.
“The first priority was to stay in Brooklyn of course. Our goal was to stay in Williamsburg if we could,” the CEO told Brooklyn Paper, “We’ve looked in different areas but we’re happy that in essence we’re staying pretty much where we are now, just four blocks away.”
