It took roughly two years of determined, non-stop searching for Burning Beard Brewing owner Jeff Wiederkehr and his team to locate a new home for their El Cajon business. But that massive outlay of time and effort felt completely worth it once they came upon a vacant space, a former airplane hangar located just a mile from their original brewery along the fenceline of East County airport Gillespie Field.
Wiederkehr eagerly signed a lease on the 11,500-square-foot location, which would allow them to significantly increase production and install a tasting room nearly three times as large as its predecessor. On top of that, a vast outdoor area would allow the company to host the types of large-scale events it has become known for over its decade in operation.
That was a year and three months ago, and other than Burning Beard shuttering its original location and moving all of its physical assets to the hangar over the spring, little has happened. Unless, that is, one counts the company becoming embroiled in a battle to be able to move forward with the new site, one which recently inspired it to reach out to fans via social media for support, asking them to attend a September 16 meeting of the Gillespie Field Development Council (GFDC) and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) at El Cajon’s City Hall to discuss the future of the property in question.
“We need to pack the room and show the Gillespie Field Development Council and FAA just how much community support is behind Burning Beard. Important clarification: We are not going there to fight the City of El Cajon. The City is supporting us,” read the online call to arms. “This meeting is about making sure the airport decision makers hear directly from the community that wants Burning Beard at Gillespie Field.”
So how did Weiderkehr go from securing a space and going about the process of acquiring necessary licensing to build out his brewery to convincing governmental agencies that he should have any right to the hangar at all?
According to Wiederkehr, in 2024, Edward Karstetter, Managing Director for the master leaseholder, Velocity Center of Excellence in Aviation (VCEA), developed plans to modernize the site. This included the replacement and modernization of several older hangars as well as a pilot and mechanic shop, plus the expansion of an aging, street-facing hangar with plans to convert it into a non-aviation-related structure. Karstetter later determined Burning Beard’s facility to be the next best use for the latter hangar.
In February of last year, Karstetter sent a letter to members of the County of San Diego Department of Public Works’ Airport Division (the entity which operates Gillespie Field) outlining a three-stage development of the VCEA, which included the addition of more than 50,000 square feet of modern hangar space as well as a “restaurant and community gathering space.” The letter named Promethean Brewing (for which “Burning Beard” is a DBA) as the tenant for that use, and indicated a mutual readiness to proceed immediately with the project.
“The campus concept is to serve the needs of the airport and surrounding communities by offering pilot training, simulator training, aircraft repair and overhaul, aircraft storage, and restaurant and dining,” says Karstetter. “Burning Beard was selected because of its unique ability to build and invest in communities, which is something very much needed for Gillespie Field.”
While the City of El Cajon and the County are on board with installation of a brewery and public venue in the frontage-facing hangar, opposition has been raised from within the GFDC.
The street address of the property Burning Beard is leasing is 1825 and 1845 North Marshall Avenue, which is on the south side of the VCEA and, according to project detractors, is located in the airport’s runway zone and restricted to aviation uses. Karstetter contends that the hangar is located outside the airport-use-only area and, furthermore, as part of his proposed plans, will be “orphaned,” as it will be fenced off from airport traffic access once construction on the overall campus project is complete.
Karstetter prepared a presentation outlining his project and position to put forth at the September 16 meeting, but was informed the morning of the event that he would not be allowed to address the Board. He and Wiederkehr say no reason was given for the sudden change of plans, and that when their agenda item came up at said meeting, the GFDC Board claimed it was the first time they were hearing about the VCEA project or Burning Beard’s inclusion in it.
“As seen on maps and the Gillespie Field Airport Land Use Plan, our building is outside the fence and, therefore, not subject to the GFDC’s governance. It should be controlled by the County Supervisor Joel Anderson’s office, which approves of this plan, and the City of El Cajon, which is also behind this development,” says Wiederkehr. “However, the project team has obscured the fact claiming that it is inside the Airport Layout Plan (ALP) fence line, when clearly it isn’t.”
The second week of September, Wiederkehr says he and Karstetter met with the GFDC Project Manager and Gillespie Field Airport Manager at the County Supervisor’s office, and that after referring to the Land Use Plan which refutes opponents’ claims, those officials said they would speak to the FAA and provide a recommendation. Yet, at the September 16 meeting, they learned something different had been communicated.
“What the Project Manager told the GFDC Board was that Burning Beard planned to redesign and resubmit plans with no mention of their error in the ALP interpretation and no mention of the impending FAA discussion,” says Wiederkehr. “We were not allowed to address this false statement during the meeting, and we never said we would redesign. In fact, I am flat against it for several reasons, the largest being that their own ALP allows for this use. They also never mentioned to us that they would seek guidance from the FAA.”
The September 16 meeting – which was attended by a number of Burning Beard proponents – ended without closure or any definitive actions, leaving the future uncertain for all parties.
Last week, Karstetter and Wiederkehr met with the County Supervisor’s Office and Airport Manager and were informed that whether the hangar in question is inside or outside the fence is irrelevant. The current issue at hand is whether, due to new construction on the hangar, the FAA will consider the structure as orphaned for aviation use.
Anderson’s office will be reaching out to the FAA to set up a meeting to determine if the hangar will be orphaned and also identify any other possible roadblocks to the project moving forward so that they may be addressed in a timely manner.
“As I understand it, this meeting with the FAA will supersede the Gillespie Field Development Council meeting,” says Wiederkehr. “In short, if the FAA says ‘no,’ it is no, and if they say ‘yes,’ it is yes.”