USA, MO: Rockwell Beer Co. makes official its St. Louis location target

When Andy Hille revealed in April his plans to open Rockwell Beer Co. in St. Louis, he said he was targeting the South Vandeventer Avenue corridor just south of Forest Park Southeast's booming Grove as a potential location, St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported on September 27.

On September 27, Hille made the location official: Rockwell will sign a lease for the Dinzler Equipment building at 1320 South Vandeventer. This will house the brewery's 15-barrel brewhouse and a 1,500-square-foot tasting room.

"It's a chance for us to really stand out over there," Hille tells Hip Hops about the location, which sits on the Botanical Heights side of the border with Forest Park Southeast.

"We originally looked at some spots on Manchester (in the Grove)," Hille says. "That's so far along now, with the space and capital needed for the brewery, it would not work over there. (Urban Chestnut) got in there at the right time."

Once Hille looked through the Dinzler Equipment building, he says, "It was pretty easy to view it as a brewery."

In addition to the building's close proximity to the Grove, Hille notes that its ceilings are high enough to accommodate brewing equipment, and its office space can be converted into the tasting room.

"The building's in great condition," Hille says. "It's not going to be a ton of rehab or environmental clean-up."

V Three Studios will be the architect for the project. Hille plans to open in the spring of 2017.

Rockwell is the second food-and-drink project on South Vandeventer announced this month. A food-truck park is planned for the former Liberty Oil Bell Co. building at 1430 South Vandeventer.

27 September, 2016