Last week, news broke that Miramar’s Pure Project Brewing is in escrow for the Vista brewery and tasting room formerly occupied by Iron Fist Brewing, which shuttered at the onset of the pandemic. It came as a shock to followers of the local beer industry because, two weeks prior, it had seemed inevitable that downtown’s Resident Brewing would close on the 13,850-square-foot spot, but negotiations stalled at the last minute.
“Unfortunately, we were not able to secure the equity to close on the transaction, then had to pivot and source financing, which we were not able to secure due to several reasons, including timing and bank restrictions,” says Managing Partner Scott Dickson. “Resident will continue to look for expansion opportunities throughout the county for a production facility, a stand-alone tasting room or perhaps both.”
The factors that made the Iron Fist site so appealing to Resident’s ownership team were the chance to own the real estate, having enough size to accommodate expansion needs for the foreseeable future, inclusion of a canning line, having an indoor/outdoor tasting room servicing North County and a location that would have worked well for distributing beers to Orange, Los Angeles and Riverside Counties.
“North County was attractive to us because of its proximity to markets outside of San Diego County and exposure to a new neighborhood of beer fans,” says Resident’s Communications Manager Jordan McDonald. “While not all neighborhoods bring us closer to the Orange and Riverside markets, our priority is to find a space that will allow us to increase our production and package our own beer. We’re open to opportunities all over San Diego County.”
Since opening in 2015, Resident has enjoyed both the benefits and challenges that come with establishing and growing a passionate customer base. The company’s 10-barrel brewhouse (which is housed in a brewery next-door to the Resident tasting room built into the back of sister business, The Local Eatery and Drinking Hole) is incapable of producing enough beer to meet demand. To increase production, Resident has had roughly a third of its beer brewed at Coronado Brewing’s Bay Park
headquarters over the past few years and will continue to lean on that contract relationship as their site search goes on.
Furthermore, the company is without a canning line or the space to house one. The ability to can beer is extremely helpful in the age of COVID-19 when canned beer meets customers’ pandemic preferences. To get over that hurdle, the company will continue to employ the services of mobile-canning vendors.
The Resident team was excited to finally provide its beers to North County beer-drinkers who voiced their enthusiasm over the company coming to Vista when news of their potential expansion spread on social media. Their message to those individuals for the time being: hold tight.
Says McDonald, “To our fans in North County, it’s sad to know that we won’t be pouring beers in your neighborhood as soon as we’d hoped, but we are still actively searching for a brewery and tasting room locations in your area.”
Resident Brewing is located at 1065 Fourth Avenue in downtown San Diego