{"id":23177,"date":"2019-12-26T08:00:05","date_gmt":"2019-12-26T16:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/?p=23177"},"modified":"2019-12-26T10:05:32","modified_gmt":"2019-12-26T18:05:32","slug":"mike-hess-brewing-to-build-at-seaport-village","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/2019\/12\/26\/mike-hess-brewing-to-build-at-seaport-village\/","title":{"rendered":"Mike Hess Brewing to build at Seaport Village"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In 2017, a commercial-property broker saw promise in building a biergarten at downtown\u2019s popular Seaport Village<\/a><\/strong> retail establishment. The plan was to have a half-dozen or so local breweries share space around a communal courtyard, and he solicited Mike Hess Brewing<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s (MHB) eponymous founder to help get the word out and bring in potential tenants. Due to complications involving licensing and logistics, the project died, but that broker\u2019s belief in beer at Seaport Village did not wane. He has since teamed with the San Diego Unified Port District<\/a><\/strong>\u2014which now owns and operates Seaport Village\u2014to select quality tenants to raise the property\u2019s long-term viability as a tourist destination. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI got a call asking if I wanted to take another run at Seaport Village, to which I replied, \u2018only for the right space and only if it has outdoor seating, preferably on the water,’\u201d says Mike Hess<\/strong>. \u201cAnd it turns out the space is the best spot in Seaport Village. It has everything we were looking for. I looked at the space, brought down some of my key leadership team and, three weeks later, we had a deal and a lease.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MHB was an early adopter of the satellite tasting room. The company is headquartered in North Park, but operates four off-site venues in Miramar, Ocean Beach, Imperial Beach and Northern California\u2019s Walnut Creek communities. Hess says a relatively uncomplicated build-out should result in an opening sometime in the first half of 2020. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coming in around 1,000 square feet, interior space\nis limited at the Seaport Village location, but the outdoor patio nearly\ndoubles that figure, and it\u2019s right on the boardwalk, affording an elevated,\n180-degree view of the harbor. Indoor capacity will be limited, but the patio\nwill be able to seat roughly 75 guests at a time. The venue will be equipped\nwith 20-plus taps dispensing MHB beers as well as wine, cider, kombucha and, on\noccasion, guest beers. Like MHB\u2019s Imperial Beach tasting room, a kitchen will be\ninstalled to serve a variety of tacos. That work area will be in full view of\npatrons. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen we opened up the brewery in 2010, we never\nthought that we\u2019d grow as we have,\u201d says Hess. \u201cIn fact, we didn\u2019t even have\nany designs of growing past being San Diego\u2019s first nanobrewery. We said we\nwill continue to grow and work our butts off as long as we are having fun and\nproviding great jobs for great people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When asked if he would consider opening a sixth venue in San Diego County, Hess is measured in his response. \u201cWe\u2019re always open to good opportunities and, with our license, we can continue to open more, but we are not in the business of building for building\u2019s sake. There has to be a good business reason to make the commitment, both in time and money, to add on locations. Our wholesale business has also really done well this year, and we have some projects we\u2019re working on in the distribution space that will take up some of those resources. And I\u2019d like to wrap up Seaport Village and phase two of our Imperial Beach tasting room before taking on any more projects.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MHB\u2019s Imperial Beach tasting room opened in March and has experienced a regularly high-level of patronage. Phase two of that project is completion of a large outdoor beer garden. The first round of comments recently came back from plan-check reviewers, and Hess says all concerns should be addressed and plans resubmitted by the end of this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe project is just awesome and I have to pinch\nmyself when I think of how amazing the final product is going to look,\u201d says\nHess. \u201cThere isn\u2019t anything like it in Southern California and our whole team\nis pumped. It is going to be an amazing addition to Imperial Beach, and it is\nso helpful that the locals are equally excited to have a super-fun, casual,\nfamily-friendly spot right in the heart of Seacoast Drive.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To those who deem satellite tasting rooms a fruitless or foolish endeavor for craft breweries, Hess points to his own company\u2019s success with the model as well as multiple studies from the Brewers Association<\/a><\/strong> (the national trade organization representing U.S. brewing companies) which state consumers are 70% more likely to purchase a brewing company\u2019s products at retail and on-premise accounts after visiting one of their tasting rooms. He also says that breweries with tasting rooms grow, on average, three times faster than brands without those venues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe love building amazing third spaces for\nconsumers. So, for us, Seaport Village fits well into our model, which is to\nbuild world-class locations to help build our brand,\u201d says Hess. \u201cWe believe\nSeaport Village will be a great spot to be able to serve not only those locals\nliving and visiting downtown, but all the tourists looking for an authentic San\nDiego brand experience.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 2017, a commercial-property broker saw promise in building a biergarten at downtown\u2019s popular Seaport Village retail establishment. The plan was to have a half-dozen or so local breweries share space around a communal courtyard, and he solicited Mike Hess Brewing\u2019s (MHB) eponymous founder to help get the word out and bring in potential tenants. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":23217,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[368,1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-23177","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-beer-news","8":"category-san-diego-beer-beverage-news","9":"entry"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/mhb_seaport.jpg?fit=1024%2C594&ssl=1","wps_subtitle":"North Park-based interest expanding to popular downtown tourist area","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdtr4y-61P","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23177"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23177\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23218,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23177\/revisions\/23218"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archives.csusm.edu\/westcoastersd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}