24 Jul Expansion at Bloomington’s Upland Brewing Co. to bring more jobs, more seating, more restrooms
By Lindsey Erdody of the Bloomington Herald Times
An Upland Brewing Co. expansion is getting some financial help from the city of Bloomington.
The $1.26 million project required upgrading a city waterline along 11th Street from 4 inches to 12 inches, and the Bloomington Redevelopment Commission recently approved $46,000 from the downtown tax increment financing district to assist with the cost of the utility work.
City Economic and Sustainable Development Director Danise Alano-Martin said the city decided to provide partial reimbursement for the water main construction because the larger pipe, which will connect to an existing 8 inch line on North Rogers Street, could benefit future development in the certified technology park.
Alano-Martin also mentioned that the Upland expansion is a benefit to the tech park, which includes 65 acres downtown that overlaps with Upland’s West 11th Street location, because it is expected to provide 60 new jobs, resulting in $1.14 million in additional payroll.
The utility work is in process now and expected to be finished within two weeks. City of Bloomington Utilities will inspect the project when completed.
Upland Brewing Co. President Doug Dayhoff said the larger waterline was necessary for an expansion of the restaurant, including a new kitchen, more seating, new bathrooms and an additional bar area.
Plans for the project go back a few years when the company moved most of the brewing operations to 37,000 square feet of space at 4060 Profile Parkway, on Bloomington’s west side near General Electric. It was an upgrade from the downtown building where there was less than 7,000 square feet for brewing, which is still used to produce sour ales.
Dayhoff said it’s been like working on a sliding puzzle — they’ve moved one piece over to allow movements of another piece. Opening a new location for brewing provided more space for upgrades at the brewpub.
“For years, that’s the game we’ve been playing,” Dayhoff said.
The space to the right of the current restaurant seating where the old kitchen was housed has been gutted in preparation for new bathrooms, tables and a bar. The current bathrooms will be removed.
“Right now we’re mostly in demo mode,” Dayhoff said.
The new kitchen was finished a few weeks ago and is about two and a half times larger than the previous one.
“Our kitchen was undersized for even the business we were doing five years ago,” Dayhoff said. “It’s nice to be able to deliver a world class sort of kitchen.”
Construction started in April, and the project should be completed by mid-September, but Dayhoff said they’re aiming for the end of August.
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