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RateMicrobrewery owners look to 2010 opening
Former opera house to become home of Crossroads Brewing Co., a pub and musical venue
By Melanie Lekocevic
Hudson-Catskill Newspapers
ATHENS — The new owners of the former opera house on Second Street are looking to restore the old building and turn it to a new use - opening a microbrewery and restaurant/pub on the first floor, and eventually, returning the second floor to its original use as a musical venue.
Co-owners Ken Landin and Janine Bennett are planning on opening Crossroads Brewing Company, which will brew beer on the premises for wholesale and retail sales. With a cavernous, and deteriorating, 15,000 square feet to work with, construction will take place in stages.
“We will break the project into two phases,” Landin said. “Ultimately, it will become a brewery/pub and musical venue.”
Landin said the first phase of work will be the microbrewery, which should take six to nine months to complete, and could be ready by next summer. Work on the second floor is more long-term, and could take three to five years.
Landin is a contractor who has also worked for a microbrewery in sales, marketing and distribution, and decided the time was right to open his own business. So he and Bennett did extensive research, visiting over one hundred breweries from New York to Chicago to decide how they wanted to design and structure their own business, and then they hired professional help to get them started.
“We retained the services of a brewing consultant who will work with us to design the brewery and work on recipe formulation until we are up and running, and then we will hire a full-time brewmaster,” Landin said.
They will ultimately distribute their unique microbrews to stores, bars and restaurants, and people will also be able to stop in for a taste and to purchase their own. The beer will be brewed on-site, and there will be an extensive ventilation system that will redirect most of the brewery odors up and out the roof of the three-story structure.
Landin said they have been looking for the right site for seven years, with several deals falling through. But as a long-time Athens resident, he found out about the former opera house, and despite the work that needs to be done, he fell in love with the historic feel of the building, and with the beer business itself.
“We decided we wanted to get into the beer business because we had a passion for it and there is plenty of room for new beers in the microbrewing industry,” he said.
Landin and Bennett spent countless hours developing their business plan, then pitched it to both the Bank of Greene County and the county’s economic development department. They were able to secure both a substantial loan from the bank, and a $240,000 Quantum Fund Loan from Greene County.
Once the microbrewery and pub are completed on the first floor, Crossroads should bring an additional eighteen jobs to Athens, and another eight to ten jobs once the musical venue is finished on the second floor. Their success, Landin said, would bode well for the village.
“If we can be successful here, we will attract other businesses to Athens,” Landin said. “Athens is a wonderful historic village, and there is no reason it can’t be thriving economically. We want to be the shot in the arm that gets that started.”
Co-owners Ken Landin and Janine Bennett are planning on opening Crossroads Brewing Company, which will brew beer on the premises for wholesale and retail sales. With a cavernous, and deteriorating, 15,000 square feet to work with, construction will take place in stages.
“We will break the project into two phases,” Landin said. “Ultimately, it will become a brewery/pub and musical venue.”
Landin said the first phase of work will be the microbrewery, which should take six to nine months to complete, and could be ready by next summer. Work on the second floor is more long-term, and could take three to five years.
Landin is a contractor who has also worked for a microbrewery in sales, marketing and distribution, and decided the time was right to open his own business. So he and Bennett did extensive research, visiting over one hundred breweries from New York to Chicago to decide how they wanted to design and structure their own business, and then they hired professional help to get them started.
“We retained the services of a brewing consultant who will work with us to design the brewery and work on recipe formulation until we are up and running, and then we will hire a full-time brewmaster,” Landin said.
They will ultimately distribute their unique microbrews to stores, bars and restaurants, and people will also be able to stop in for a taste and to purchase their own. The beer will be brewed on-site, and there will be an extensive ventilation system that will redirect most of the brewery odors up and out the roof of the three-story structure.
Landin said they have been looking for the right site for seven years, with several deals falling through. But as a long-time Athens resident, he found out about the former opera house, and despite the work that needs to be done, he fell in love with the historic feel of the building, and with the beer business itself.
“We decided we wanted to get into the beer business because we had a passion for it and there is plenty of room for new beers in the microbrewing industry,” he said.
Landin and Bennett spent countless hours developing their business plan, then pitched it to both the Bank of Greene County and the county’s economic development department. They were able to secure both a substantial loan from the bank, and a $240,000 Quantum Fund Loan from Greene County.
Once the microbrewery and pub are completed on the first floor, Crossroads should bring an additional eighteen jobs to Athens, and another eight to ten jobs once the musical venue is finished on the second floor. Their success, Landin said, would bode well for the village.
“If we can be successful here, we will attract other businesses to Athens,” Landin said. “Athens is a wonderful historic village, and there is no reason it can’t be thriving economically. We want to be the shot in the arm that gets that started.”
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touristsnottenements wrote on Dec 1, 2009 2:32 PM: