New Belgium Brewing plans to resume work on new brewery site in Asheville next month

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Here’s the press release. I plan to follow up with more detail after talking with New Belgium officials today:

New Belgium Brewing will resume site work this November on its Asheville location along the French Broad River in preparation for ground-breaking next spring. Contractors will focus on flood plain mitigation, erosion control and concrete removal through the end of the year. In order to reduce waste, hydrodemolition will be utilised. This technique is used by the UK’s leading hydrodemolition contractors, and is the most effective way of removing structural concrete while still retaining supporting steel structures. Starting in January and running through spring, operations will shift to soil mitigation. Earth moving subcontractors will be hired in November and will begin trucking in dirt by early 2014 for flood plain mitigation. Current schedule projections show the site as “pad-ready” in late spring 2014 at which time building construction will commence. It is estimated that the Asheville brewery will be ready for production in late 2015.

“We are excited to enter this next phase of site preparation and building construction,” said New Belgium’s Asheville General Manager, Jay Richardson. “Adolphson + Peterson will begin site preparation in November, with groundbreaking scheduled for Spring 2014. Our current schedule has us producing beer in Asheville by the end of 2015 and a fine day that will be.”

New Belgium anticipates hiring 50 positions prior to opening the doors in 2015 and expects to create 140 jobs at full buildout between the brewery and distribution center. Many of these job openings will begin posting in mid 2015. New Belgium made its first Asheville hire this fall, bringing on board Asheville resident and engineer, Gabe Quisenberry, formerly with Mattern + Craig who will serve as Operations Support Manager.

The brewery will ultimately produce 500,000 barrels of beer per year and will feature production and packaging operations as well as a touring and tasting facility. Negotiations are moving forward to secure a second site for the distribution center as well. The distribution center will be built at the same time as the brewery. New Belgium is finalizing negotiations with the seller and will announce the site location upon completion. The distribution center will be the hub for distributing product to the east coast and will be located in an industrial area.

Updates to the community are provided at these channels: www.NewBelgium.com/AshevilleBrewery or 888-598-9552.

Asheville Brewery rendering by Perkins + Will

17 Comments

Harry October 23, 2013 - 7:21 pm

I’ll believe it when I see it. NBB is much less likely to want to deal with an inept city council than the cretons who elect the likes of Bothwell and Smith are.

North Asheville Neighbor October 23, 2013 - 8:18 am

I can’t believe they’re still coming given the new North Carolina political reality. If I were them I’d find a more hospitable state in which to lay their foundation.

smytty October 23, 2013 - 4:59 pm

Well, their doors don’t open for two more years. The “political reality” might change several times by then.

weavervilleman October 23, 2013 - 11:25 pm

I disagree. Asheville and NC in general is becoming more hospitable to newer businesses. I am glad for more businesses and jobs to come in and raise the economy standards. Although we arent Greenville, SC on the business sector (since they have MANY businesses making their corporate setting in the City, I.E. Hubbell lighting and Michelin) but this is a start.

Doug S. October 24, 2013 - 12:18 pm

We don’t want to be like Greenville. Outside of downtown, that place is depressing. Cheap, vinyl subdivisions as far as the eye can see, hastily put up to accomodate the lower-middle income workers brought in by the big corporations that have located there. No culture, no sense of community, and nothing to distinguish it from any other town in South Carolina these days.

FDR October 24, 2013 - 3:56 pm

Doug, I’m surprised at your comment and can only assume that you have a trust fund or grew up with a silver spoon in your mouth. Some people can only afford certain houses that come with vinyl siding. And while you will be painting your house every five years they will not. That is if you even own a house. So you keep talking and find yourself another place to live, how about Rosman, NC?

Doug S. October 25, 2013 - 12:13 am

FDR, you should at least look into HardiePlank. You might be surprised what you can afford on your budget.

PBnJ October 25, 2013 - 7:51 am

Don’t hate on Rosman. You need to GTFO.

hauntedheadnc October 24, 2013 - 7:17 pm

No culture in Greenville? On the contrary, as much as it pains me as an Ashevillian to admit it. Greenville has a superior art museum, a children’s museum when ours has shut its doors, and performing arts spaces that destroy anything we have up here. In addition, they have a better arena that attracts bigger and better shows than our Brutalist relic on Haywood Street, and they also have an truly outstanding collection of historic artwork that, while you have to endure Bob Jones University to view, you do not have to pay upwards of $60 per person, as you would at Biltmore, whose collection of antiquities does not in any way approach that at BJU.

And that is to say nothing of their superior airport, higher-paying jobs, and lower cost of living. Unfortunately, to access all these amenities, you have to put up with Greenville’s and South Carolina’s neolithic politics, racism, and high crime. Asheville knows this, and has carved its niche out of sitting around, too pretty to work, while Greenville does the heavy lifting. If Greenville should ever manage to reverse course politically, though, and become a place that most Ashevillians can live in the same openness found here, then Asheville is going to be gut-punched by the exodus.

In short, Greenville has plenty we ought to be copying, and fast. Asheville should aspire to be a liberal Greenville.

Harry October 25, 2013 - 12:34 pm

Prosperity never comes from liberalism.

Dianty October 26, 2013 - 8:21 am

PUH-LEEZE. Greenville, SC has no heart, no soul, no creativity. Take a walk down Main St. and tell me where is something besides a chain store or restaurant. Yes they’ve done nice with the park surrounding the waterfall and have extended that through nice fake waterfalls throughout downtown. But it is a bunch of square yuppies strolling the streets running from chain restaurant to chain store.

The people mentally creatively are soul-less, lifeless creatures, milling about in a pool of mediocrity. Outside of downtown it just gets worse. The conservative vibe and the redneck attitude have made an atmosphere of underlying anger and mean-ness.

Blech, phooey. I am so glad I left that place. Asheville is a breath of fresh air. Kind, happy creative people doing their own thing.

New Belgium and other “cool companies” can tell the difference.

smytty October 26, 2013 - 3:58 pm

Spent a weekend in downtown Greenville recently and was very pleasantly surprised. Yes, the outskirts are depressed-bordering-on-scary, yes lots of the people there look like they spend all their free time playing tennis or golf – but it’s clearly a very well planned out, beautiful, clean downtown. The park and the footbridge, the walkable downtown streets, the watering holes and restaurants…

To me, it reflects Asheville with more conservative politics and more money (redundant?).

Nice town. Great place to visit. I’ll stay here in Asheville though, thanks.

Christian October 26, 2013 - 7:35 pm

I’m glad that New Belgium will be coming to town. It will be an ideal addition to our local economy and culture.

I agree with some of the sentiments about Greenville. I certainly don’t feel the same vibe and sense of openness in Greenville but there is something to be said of some of their amenities. I’m not talking mega-arenas like you see in large cities (I don’t want that in Asheville), but there are definitely ways we can grow without selling our soul the way Greenville has. Don’t fool yourself, Harry. Liberal states receive less aid from the federal government than do conservative states. Asheville could become more of a liberal mecca than it already is with proper growth. We need better amenities unique to Asheville. We need a better middle-class environment that suits Asheville’s citizens. We need to continue to focus on tourism but that cannot get in way of policy that supports the people actually living here. We are so ripe for this it’s crazy. Hold our city leaders to task!

Foothills Dweller October 26, 2013 - 3:00 pm

Wow – when I built my vinyl siding home in 2006, I was single at the time and $150,000 was about the most I could afford. I didn’t realize that I’d be categorized as a low-class slumdog, and I don’t think my friends and family view it that way either. Now that I’m married I know that my husband and I could afford a lot more, but we like it here and will debt-free in 8 years. I’ll be able to retire in 12 years at 54 because we chose to live within/below our means, and get to spend a lot more time at the country club we belong to that we only get to see on the weekends right now. Don’t judge people by the homes they live in.

Foothills Dweller October 26, 2013 - 3:02 pm

I hit Reply to Doug’s comment – I don’t know why it end up down here.

Foothills Dweller October 26, 2013 - 3:05 pm

(Delete the last one – it’s hard to see the border lines in the Comments section on a tablet).

pete smith October 22, 2013 - 6:54 pm

Yes! Progress! Thank you NBB.

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