In its history, the North County inland community of Poway has played home to just two breweries. The first was Lightning Brewery, which recently reopened as a nanobrewery after selling off its original brewing equipment and downsizing significantly. The second to come along was Green Flash Brewing’s Cellar 3 facility, which recently shuttered while the company, which sold to an investment firm last month, looks to offload the combination barrel-aging and tasting room space. It’s fair to say the community—which is home to roughly 48,000 with an average annual family income of $120,000—is underserved from a local-beer perspective. This opinion is shared by Lev Mizan, a brokerage associate with Heritage Group who is shopping a property in the Old Poway Village area he says is ideally suited for a brewery looking to add a satellite tasting room.
Located at 14005 Midland Road, the structure offers 1,350 square feet of interior space, but a primary selling feature in Mizan’s opinion is expansive patio space, which comes in at 2,620 square feet. He says that outdoor area can be made available in as soon as 30 days and would equip a brewing company with something rather rare even in our tasting room-inundated county, al fresco imbibing plus elbow space. Ironically, Cellar 3 featured a spacious outdoor patio which will likely be revived when under new ownership. Other selling points are the space’s private-event and entertainment capabilities, “unlimited” parking and, if desired, the option to work with a brewery tenant, build-to-suit style, which would allow Mizan and company to accommodate as much as 6,155 square feet of space for a more ambitious project including a kitchen and/or brewing equipment.
Mizan believes this space is best-suited for an established, larger brewery looking to increase exposure and capture regular patronage from Poway residents. Whoever takes it will have like-minded neighbors. Urban winery Mission Cellars is expected to open in the space next-door by the end of May, and will be crushing grapes, producing wine and serving it from that location. Mizan has received a good amount of interest on the tasting room unit but is still accepting inquiries. Interested parties are advised to contact him via email.