Cheat Canyon Brewing pulls plug on Morgantown

The buzz began after an unattributed quote posted on a Morgantown web forum began catching people’s eyes on Tuesday. The text it quoted read:

“We pulled the plug on Morgantown. Morgantown has proved too expensive and not economically feasible for our business model. We have moved operations to Cuyahoga Falls Ohio and are in the process of closing the deal on a wonderful building their [sic].” ¹

Other posts on the forum said the quote was referring to Cheat Canyon Brewing Company, which was supposed to be constructed in the new Westridge commercial development in Westover. Westridge is an upscale development encompassing over 1,000 acres along I-79 between University Town Center and the Morgantown Mall.

We reached out by email to brewery project leader Bob Milvet, who lives in Morgantown, and, unfortunately, the rumor is true. Cheat Canyon Brewing will not be built in Morgantown.

“We have been working for almost two years trying to make Morgantown work, but it is not going to happen,” he said in an email reply.

Milvet said some very large, unexpected costs popped up late in the project development cycle that made building in Westridge financially unworkable. Moving to Plan B, Milvet said he began searching around the Morgantown area for other suitable commercial properties.

“And despite all of that, our immediate attempts to try and find another building for the size we need were unsuccessful,” he said. “Morgantown does not have a lot of 10,000 sq. ft. industrial buildings in nice areas that are affordable.”

At the end of the line, he concluded that it was not economically feasible in Morgantown to build or rent a building for the size and quality brewery business they were planning.

Milvet’s head brewer and lifelong friend, Tommy Nichelson, lives in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. They have found real estate costs there for they type of building they need to be much more affordable than in Morgantown. That is why the brewery may end up in Ohio, Milvet says.

He says no matter where the brewery is built, they would plan to distribute beer to West Virginia and keep the commitments to their corporate charitable mission.

“We also will remain true to our mission of providing financial support to environmental and water quality improvement initiatives in the Cheat River Canyon because that is near and dear to us,” he said.

The plans were bold and beautiful

Milvet had previously disclosed plans that showed Cheat Canyon Brewing would be a large brewery for West Virginia, with a 30 barrel brewhouse and 180 barrels of fermentation space at opening. Total investment was estimated to  be in the range of $4 million.

The architectural drawings for the building’s exterior showed a modern structure that looked fantastic. The brewery building was to include a large restaurant taproom with full food service. At opening, they expected to employ around 8 full-time and 20 part-time staff.

The brewery planned to offer an extensive beer line-up, including a Russian Imperial Stout, Milk Stout, Black IPA/Cascadian Dark Ale, Farmhouse Ale, Citra IPA, Pale Ale, Amber Ale, NEIPA, Double IPA, plus seasonals and one-offs. They planned to put four or five of those beers into distribution through WV beer distributors.

The partners had been working on the Morgantown project for a long time and had surely expended thousands of dollars in the planning. It could have been a beauty. It is a real shame that this project fell through. But, moving ahead and over-spending for the amount of projected revenue could have led to financial disaster down the road. That would not have been smart.

National craft beer slowdown cautions breweries

The current tenor of the craft beer marketplace means brewery developers must be very careful to keep project costs in line with market realities. Tough decisions have to be made.

With craft beer market growth slowing down, a number of brewery projects have recently pulled back, refocused, or closed. In our region of the country, the most dramatic was the closing of the Green Flash Brewing Company’s expensive and nearly new Virginia Beach brewery. Deschutes Brewery’s proposed new brewery in Roanoke, is being rethought and possibly resized to the new market realities, though the brewery remains committed to building the facility. Many smaller breweries are shifting more emphasis to in-house sales instead of distribution in an effort to increase revenue and margins. Three West Virginia breweries have ceased operation in the past year: Lost River Brewing in Wardensville, Mash Brewing in Charles Town, and Morgantown Brewing’s production brewery in Westover.

¹ [City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > West Virginia > Morgantown ]