Too Much Square footage

[SwampCracker]

Morning all, we are currently looking at a building in one of our few industrial areas in our town. We found a great deal on a historic building. It's 10,000 sq ft I can't see too much space being an issue, that being said there are a ton of things I can't see lol. What is the issues that could pop up?

Ray

[Tom Lenerz]

I'm of the opinion that you can never have enough. We just completed a space with lots of room to grow, and it is already filling up.

[Huffy2k]

We're fixing up a building that was built in 1901. Issues we've had to address include: old, unsafe wiring, inadequate plumbing (including a rube Goldberg sump pump design that could never keep up with heavy rains), needed new gas service since the gas company wouldn't allow us to use the old meter that was in the basement of the building, of course this required is to excavate to the street to install a new service line. We also had to replace some windows.

All that said, our building is pure awesomeness and I'm glad we did the extra work to restore it. It's going to be really special.

[Distiller76]

I agree with Tom.

If you think you need 10,000 square feet, Go with 20,000. It's a lot cheaper to start off a little bigger than you need, and grow into the space than it is to realize that you've outgrown your space and then have to look for another facility or build new buildings.

We have close to 10,000 and I wish we had 30,000

A few things people never take into consideration are,

Empty barrel storage

Grain storage

Empty glass storage

Finished product storage

Packaging storage

Bottling facility

Just my two cents.

[rtshfd]

We started with roughly a 2k sqft tasting room, 4k sqft production floor and another 2k sqft for storage/barrel warehouse. We chose this location because there's an easy 12k sqft on top of that into which we could expand as we grow. Space was one of the top considerations when we were looking around. More the merrier. Buy as much as you can handle (same with still, fermentation space, bottling capacity...you can see the trend here).

[Silk City Distillers]

It all looks big, until you try to turn the forklift around.

[SwampCracker]

Thanks guys, I appreciate the input. That was my thoughts as well.

[bull]

We have roughly 13K Square Feet. As we are adding equipment, tasting room/bar, etc. We are slowly chipping away at our once large space. If you can afford it, go big if you have big dreams of growing.

[bluestar]

We regret not starting out with twice as much space.

[BRDC]

We started out with a 25k sqft building. Right now it is too big, but it is easier to grow into a space than have to move. 

Our building is relatively old and was vacant for about six years before we moved in. Getting an old building back in shape is a chore. You will have plumbing, electrical, fire safety,etc. the list goes on and on for old buildings. Also, if you are in a metropolitan area, be prepared for code enforcement. It is a good idea to learn what building codes that are applicable to a distillery. Most of our inspectors here have not ever seen one. They tried to require us to be a H-1 building which would have cost a significant amount. However, because we were educated, we were able to demonstrate how we were actually a F-1 building which we were built out to be. 

[Broken Anvil Distilleries]

And I thought 4000 sq ft was going to be too big for a medium sized operation! I don't know about others, but lease is my budget killer.

No one knows how to deal with a distillery in might part of Ontario either.

[TetonDistillery]

In 2012 we started with 2,500 sq ft on a piece of land that is 3 acres. We owned the land. After about a year we expanded the building to 5,000 sq ft.

Then we also built a warehouse on the other end of the property to create 3,000 sq ft purely for storage. That building has no electricity or water. Just pure storage so it was cheap to build.

My advice would be to always consider your expansion options in the future. The worst scenario would be to lease a small location with no expansion potential, then have to disrupt your entire business for an expensive move once you outgrow the initial space. 

 

James Morrison : james@tetondistillery.com

Grand Teton Distillery

New Equipment For Sale: Stills, Fermentation Tanks, Stainless Steel Barrels

http://www.tetondistillery.com/distillery-equipment