We had defined what we needed to meet the business model that we were going to run with. We wanted to build a small brewery with a cool, industrial-style taproom. Something aimed more at the local market, a place locals could come to hang out, enjoy good beer, watch the footy, listen to an acoustic band on a Sunday afternoon, somewhere to relax.
We were looking for somewhere that could easily accommodate the brewery requirements, plus a taproom capable of seating around 90–100 patrons.
After searching the commercial real estate websites for a few weeks, we narrowed down a list of locations.
From the research I had done, the easiest path was to try and find a location within an Industrial 1 Zone. Industrial 1 Zones are areas zoned for manufacturing, which, as we would be making beer, seemed to fit.
You think, yeah okay, this is easy? Well… not exactly.
While the manufacturing of beer fits comfortably under Industrial 1 Zone use, the taproom is classified as "manufacturing retail sales". However, as a lot of councils hadn't been through the process with a brewery before, they often didn't know how to tackle it.
If we just wanted to manufacture beer and wholesale it, we could go ahead without issue or any additional permits from council. But as we wanted to serve beer on-site in the taproom and also allow retail sales (for takeaway), it meant we had to submit a development application with council and go through the approval process.
It's amazing what you start to find out the more you look into things. I wasn't fully across any of this at that point.
I reached out to a local brewery that I had befriended, Danny and Amila at Two Rupees. They advised that they had used a town planning consultant who had experience with breweries, Matt at Liquorplan. They passed his details on, and I reached out to Matt.
Matt spent a good amount of time on the phone with me, running through the process. At that point, we had a location in mind and had some of the details.
Matt had a look at it and didn't see any major issues. It was in the right zone, his dealings with the local council had been good previously, and while there was a concern over parking on-site, there was plenty of on-street parking available.
I hadn't actually formally engaged Matt at this point, but told him that as soon as we had secured a location, we would get him on board.
We Found a Home!
After narrowing down a few options, we found a factory that was around the size we were looking for, located in the new industrial area in Cranbourne West.
We put our offer in with the agent and waited to hear back. After some questions back and forth, the negotiations came to an end. We had an agreed price, but the owner wanted to meet us on-site to run through what we had planned.
Okay, not what you would usually expect, but as the owner was also the builder who built the factory, it was working in my favour. There were a bunch of questions I had about accessing drainage, etc.
I met the agent and the owner on-site and ran through everything and what our plans were. He provided answers to my questions, it was all looking good, and I left the meeting with the agent saying he would have something through to me in a few days.
A week passed. I'd not heard back.
I contacted the agent to find out where things were at.
"Trent, we have a bit of an issue… the owner has decided, after discussing it with his wife, that they don't want to sell to you."
I responded with, "What the actual F#%K are you talking about? After spending weeks already negotiating and agreeing on a price, why does he not want to sell?"
Well, it turns out that as he still had the factory next door for sale, he was concerned that a brewery opening up in the factory we wanted might impact his ability to sell the building next door.
I couldn't believe it. The agent was also in disbelief.
The only way this guy was going to sell it was if we bought the two factories, or bought one and leased the other on a long-term lease (10+ years).
So, we hit our first roadblock.
We're at the 20th of December now. Time to park this until the new year and see what other options we can find available.