Is an addition coming to the Brew Ridge Trail? Update – Sean at Charlottesville Tomorrow confirms – Deschuttes Brewery from Bend, Oregon is the brewery that is considering our area.
Update #2 – Newsplex reports Tuesday night that the Albemarle County Planning Commission has voted against this development. Nothing’s ever easy in Albemarle.
Albemarle County may be pushing through a rezoning just south of Charlottesville in hopes of attracting a new, larger brewery, to the Charlottesville area, writes Sean Tubbs in Charlottesville Tomorrow.
Albemarle officials have confirmed that an “adult beverage producer” is interested in the Sweetspot location.
The county has withheld the company’s identity at its request, a standard practice when companies are seeking to expand their operations in a community where they have previously not done business.
Furnari said he does not know which company is looking at the Albemarle site, but that West Coast breweries expanding operations to the East Coast is a growing trend.
An employer of this size and scale affects nearly everything – water and sewer, traffic and road infrastructure, housing and jobs – and people. Presumably the company would be moving people to the Charlottesville area, and integrating them into our community.
The process is an interesting one, in which the County is essentially saying, “trust us.” Trust is an interesting thing, and one hopes they won’t cut off their noses to spite their faces … if they push this through with little so transparency, the die may be cast for the next developer/ment.
Let the wild speculation begin about which brewery it could be. My sleuthing points to Deschutes. They’re also looking at Asheville and several other locations though so that’s some stiff competition for us.
I’ve heard a bunch of names bandied about … I don’t know much about Deshutes, but hope that if this does come to fruition, traffic challenges are addressed and the beer is tasty.
This is a tough one because I want to see this done transparently and in a way that minimizes traffic impacts but I do like tasty beer!