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Hardywood plans $28M expansion in Goochland

July 21, 2015

Posted: Monday, July 20, 2015 10:50 pm

A local company that was at the vanguard of the Richmond area’s current craft brewery boom is planning to create yet another beer lover’s destination in the region.

Hardywood Park Craft Brewery, co-founded by business partners Eric McKay and Patrick Murtaugh four years ago as a small brewing operation in Richmond, now plans to invest about $28 million over five years to build a 60,000-square-foot brewery, packaging and distribution center in the West Creek office park in Goochland County.

The 22-acre site near the Virginia Farm Bureau Federation headquarters also will have a taproom, a beer garden, an orchard and a natural amphitheater, where McKay and Murtaugh envision local residents and tourists kicking back and enjoying theater or music while sampling a wide selection of craft brews.

“I think it is going to be one of the most beautiful breweries in the country,” McKay said Monday at an event announcing the expansion at the Virginia Farm Bureau headquarters.

The Hardywood co-founders said they considered more than 100 potential sites for the complex and visited about a dozen — including a location in the Raleigh, N.C., area — before they chose Goochland.

“This was the most beautiful, and perfect with its proximity to the highways and infrastructure,” McKay said.

State government officials — who have targeted craft beverages as part of the state’s economic development strategy — offered more than $1 million in incentives to secure the Hardywood expansion. Goochland has committed up to $1 million in matching incentives in tax credits over a period of up to 10 years.

Gov. Terry McAuliffe approved a $500,000 grant from the Commonwealth’s Opportunity Fund for the project, to be used for infrastructure, along with a $400,000 performance-based grant from the Virginia Investment Partnership program, an incentive available to existing companies that expand in the state, according to the governor’s office.

The company also is eligible for up to $56,000 in state job-training grants to help train the 56 employees that Hardywood expects to hire as part of the expansion. The company currently employs about 40 people, including some part-timers.

“We are going to be creating a lot of jobs that require a fairly high level of skills,” including in brewing craft beer, McKay said.

The company also will receive a $250,000 grant from the Governor’s Agriculture and Forestry Industries Development, or AFID, fund, an incentive program administered by the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services to support businesses that use Virginia agriculture products.

That money will go toward equipment to process the Virginia-grown farm products, such as blackberries, that Hardywood uses in its beer varieties.

“The whole craft beer industry has been spectacular for the commonwealth of Virginia,” McAuliffe said Monday at the official announcement, where he and other guests were treated to glasses of Hardywood beer.

McAuliffe pegged the economic impact of Virginia’s 120 breweries at about $623 million a year. The state also has about 25 craft distilleries, 10 cideries and 260 wineries.

The new brewery complex is expected to open to the public in the spring of 2017. Hardywood’s brewery and tasting room on Ownby Lane in Richmond will remain open and continue to have public events.

The company’s Richmond brewery has become a hot spot for fans of craft beer since McKay and Murtaugh opened it in 2011.

The brewery, which operates in a 12,000-square-foot building, started to draw large crowds on evenings and weekends in 2012, when a change in state law allowed breweries to sell full glasses of beer to visitors even if they do not have a restaurant on site. The law previously had allowed breweries without restaurants to serve only free samples.

Hardywood’s growth has mirrored the growth of the craft beer industry nationwide. The company’s beers now are available at more than 3,000 retail stores and restaurants in Virginia, Washington and eastern Pennsylvania.

The company is on track to brew about 15,000 barrels at its Richmond brewery in 2015, but it is rapidly nearing capacity at that site. The expansion will allow it to increase its capacity to more than 40,000 barrels per year, which will enable the company to expand its distribution.

Hardywood’s beers include a Belgian-style blond ale called Hardywood Singel, a German-style pilsner beer called Hardywood Pils, hoppier beers such as Hardywood RVA IPA, and various barrel-conditioned and seasonal beers including the popular Hardywood Gingerbread Stout.

Hardywood was among the first in what has developed into a booming craft beverage industry in the Richmond area, with more than a dozen craft breweries and cideries now operating locally.

In addition to a bevy of homegrown breweries, Richmond was selected last October as the site for California-based Stone Brewing Co.’s new East Coast production facility.

Stone Brewing, the nation’s 10th-largest craft beer maker, is building a 200,000-square-foot production plant in Richmond’s East End that eventually will include a riverfront bistro. It is expected to create about 288 jobs.

Hardywood already uses some Virginia-grown farm products in its beers. “They are ramping up that commitment,” said Todd P. Haymore, Virginia’s secretary of agriculture and forestry.

Haymore said Hardywood plans to buy about $1.4 million worth of Virginia farm products over four years, or about 300,000 pounds of products ranging from hops to fruits, herbs and honey.

“This is a classic example of good old-fashioned organic growth,” Haymore said of the expansion.

“Everybody knows about our (Virginia’s) incredible wine industry, but now we have got a fast-emerging craft beer industry and distilled spirits industry,” he said of the state. “Our cideries are growing, and meaderies are coming online.”

Richmond-based Union Bank & Trust is providing the financing. The general contractor is Loughridge & Co. The architect is Price Studios. The landscape architect is Waterstreet Studio, and the civil engineer is Kimley-Horn.