By Greg Bennett
It came down to timing. Bad timing.
The owners of the new craft brewery planning a start up in 2013 in Shelburne, won’t be moving into the historic Cox Warehouse.
For the past several months, owners Emily Tipton and Henry Pedro indicated they wanted their new business to move into the warehouse in Shelburne.
Last week they gave notice to the Shelburne Historical Society that because of renovation delays on the warehouse, the brewery must seek another building.
That has left Society members scrambling to find another tenant, a prerequisite before almost $230,000 of federal funding announced earlier this fall can be released.
Both the business and society members were expressing disappointment with the move.
“We’ve been working in support of the Society for many months, and we’ve been both excited and hopeful about taking over the space of the Cox Warehouse,” said co-owner Emily Tipton. “And we’ve been very clear from the beginning how important our timelines were. After several months of delays, we no longer have confidence that the warehouse will be ready in time to meet our business requirements.”
Company owners say the timelines are tied to obtaining their brewery license and producing product for the summer of 2013.
The business owners said the high costs of retrofitting the Cox Warehouse for a brewery, were also a factor in their withdrawal from the project
“We are 100% fully committed to opening our new craft brewery here in the town of Shelburne. That has not changed. All that has changed is that we’ll be renting a facility other than the Cox Warehouse,” said Tipton.
Tipton and Pedro anticipate having a new facility confirmed by early in 2013, with production starting by March. The first beer is expected to be available for sale two months after their brewery license is approved.
The Historical Society expressed regret the business withdrew from the agreement.
“We are extremely disappointed in this last minute change and the Shelburne Historical Society board of directors will be meeting immediately to explore the possibility of proceeding with other tenants,” said Louise Lindsay, President of the Shelburne Historical Society.
For the project to move ahead this year, the society needs to have a commitment with a private sector tenant.
