06/11/2025
Our final day of service in West Bend will be this Saturday, June 14. Please join us for beers this week and let’s shut it down with a bang!
TL/DR —>
How did we get in here just 13 months?
Well, if you aren’t aware, we opened this location 11 months later than we originally planned. 7 of those months we had to pay rent.
Some delays were related to post-covid disruptions that everyone was dealing with. The issue for us was our project manager / general contractor.
We hired the same PM/GC that was on-site building the apartments. The thought being that our space would be able to built in concert with the rest of the building. Unfortunately, since they were so behind on the apartments they didn’t manage our project with any diligence.
Materials were not ordered in time causing major delays. Several projects had to be done twice. For example hanging the main HVAC run, sealing the kitchen and bar floors, the fireplace woodwork, the bar tops… the list goes on.
Their company closed for good less than a month after we opened leaving us no recourse to try and recoup our losses.
The funds used to pay rent had been allocated for our kitchen and coffee shop. So that meant we had to open as a taproom only, without two of our planned revenue streams.
We did our best to carry the whole space with just beer service. But it wasn’t long before we were needing to invest more cash into the business to keep it running.
Once those resources dried up we attempted to renegotiate our debt. Unfortunately after attempting to negotiate with our private lender we were not offered any realistic terms.
We are actively working on finding a suitable replacement tenant. If you have any suggestions please reach out.
Thanks for the support you have shown us over the last year! It was great to get to be a part of your community, even if only for a year. 💗
Cheers,
1840 Brewing Co
