USA, MA: White Lion Brewing leases new location in Springfield

White Lion Brewing is moving into the former Spaghetti Freddy’s location in Tower Square, Springfield, having leased 10,000 square feet from the building’s new owners, MassLive.com reported on December 19.

And White Lion plans to move its brewing tanks in on December 20, having purchased used equipment from a brewery in Watkins Glen, New York.

The Spaghetti Freddy’s space was vacant for close to 15 years but will now house a full scale production and packaging facility with taproom, the company announced on December 19
. The new development will cost in the neighborhood of $1 million according to Demetrios Panteleakis of MacMillan Group Commercial Real Estate Services, which represents Tower Square’s owner.

Equipment arrives Thursday, at 9 a.m. and will force the temporary closure of streets in the area.

White Lion will offer light fare food in a brewpub setting.

“It will have open area seating in the foyer," said Panteleakis. “We expect the build-out to take a few months,” meaning that White Lion is expected to open in 2019.

Panteleakis said the new Tower Square owners are renovating what’s now known as the Tower Square Hotel as part of an agreement to get the 265-room property back its Marriott branding. The hotel has been generically referred to as the “Tower Square Hotel” for about a year.

The old Champions sports bar space is currently being renovated into an expanded Currents restaurant as well.

White Lion had been in talks to build its long-awaited Springfield brewpub in The MassLive Building.

But there were engineering problems associated with putting a brewery in the first floor bank space at the building once known as One Financial Plaza, said White Lion founder Raymond Berry.

Berry said the Tower Square development will be a full production brewery that will also serve what he described as “light fare.” That would include tapas, gourmet hot dogs, tacos and the like, but not full meals.

Unlike with the previous plan to develop a space in the MassLive Building, Bill Collins of the Center Square Grill in East Longmeadow, is no longer a partner in White Lion’s project. But when reached by phone Wednesday, Collins said he thought the Tower Square space would be “spectacular” for White Lion Brewing.

White Lion bought brewing, mechanical and refrigeration systems from Rooster Fish Brewing out of Watkins Glen, N.Y. The system will allow White Lion to brew approximately 10,000 barrels, or in excess of 100,000 cases of beer, annually from the downtown Springfield location.

The project includes expanding its independent distribution model and hiring up to 20 employees. The brewery is expected to open in the spring of 2019, Panteleakis said.

“It’s just great that we are bringing manufacturing back to downtown Springfield,” Berry said.

Long touted as Springfield’s only craft brewery, White Lion is currently brewed in Williamsburg and Ipswich.

MassMutual sold the Tower Square offices and mall for $7 million in April to Dinesh Patel of East Longmeadow, Vid Mitta of Lexington and Rohit Patel and Kamlesh Patel of Maine.

The partners had previously bought the attached hotel for $10.5 million.

20 December, 2018