Brewery slated to be town’s second after commission gives developers green light

By Jack Chavez, Staff Writer

(May 18, 2023) The Berlin Planning Commission gave a unanimous green light on May 10 to a pair of businessmen looking to open a new brewery on Broad Street.

Adam Davis and Glen Davis appeared before the commission during its monthly meeting to discuss their plans to open the Berlin Beer Company at 115 Broad Street, the former site of the Broad Street Station building.

Their plans include restoring the original board-and-batten siding of the building and adding a 2,000-square-foot matching warehouse on the northwest portion of the property which will house the brewery, “brewery-related” things and the facility’s light manufacturing, Adam Davis said.

“We’re not trying to change the structure,” Adam Davis said. “We want to keep it as historic as possible and bring it back to what it was historically.”

The 1930s-era facility was a freight train station originally before becoming a Southern States farm store.

The Street Kitchen will be providing food for the establishment, which will have about 3,000 square feet of public-accessible space, Adam Davis said.

Ideally, the brewery will be a local spot in the community, he continued, and he didn’t expect it to be a nuisance. Toward that end, the bulk of the brewing activity would be located on the back end of the site.

“I don’t envision this being more than a community gathering place,” he said.

Glenn Davis added that on top of living close to the facility, the pair wouldn’t want to invite conflict with their neighbors.

“We’re not going to be a music venue,” he said. “You have to remember this is also a restaurant. So, you have patrons in there having dinner, having a beer, wine … It’s a different venue than what (people might assume).

Parking was the chief concern among commission members, with town staff reporting that the fire marshal first has to set the occupancy for the site.

Davis has proposed 26 spaces, more than Broad Street Station had. The biggest question mark for the commission was whether there would be sufficient parking for the Berlin Beer Company, something that won’t be decided until the county fire marshal has a chance to determine the establishment’s maximum occupancy.

Planning director Dave Engelhart explained that a parking spot is measured in Berlin as a 9-feet-by-20-feet space — or about 180 square feet. If there (are 3,000) square feet for the public to be standing in, that would mean (at least) 20 spots are needed.

“I think he’ll be fine to comply,” Engelhart said. “It looks like he’s in a good spot with parking.”

Approval of the site plans was contingent on the confirmation of sufficient parking and the submission of landscape and lighting plans.