The building sits at the corner of Pearl Street and Mississippi Ave. on the edge of Denver’s Wash Park neighborhood. (Courtesy of Blue West Capital)
Michelle Reding, a co-founder and self-proclaimed “numbers girl” at Dry Dock Brewing, said the math on its new West Wash Park brewpub pointed to owning rather than renting.
She, along with seven friends and family members, purchased 1101 S. Pearl St. on Friday for $2.5 million, according to public records. Reding will help open Dry Dock Pub in the building come spring.
“It’s always better to own a building than to pay somebody else’s mortgage, and we get the appreciation that goes along with it,” Reding said.
Reding is a part-owner of Dry Dock’s parent company, the Left Hand Collective, but emphasized that the buying group is separate from the business.
The building previously housed the Pub on Pearl, which closed in August after 35 years. The sellers, a group of local investors, bought it for $1.9 million in June 2019, public records show. The building is home to five other tenants.
“It just seems like the tenants are happy, their businesses are going well, and they want to remain there. As a landlord, there’s nothing more important than your rent rolls,” Reding said.
Josh Lorenzen, the broker with Blue West Capital who represented the sellers with his colleague Rob Edwards, said demand was strong from the moment he listed the property.
“A lot of interest from investors, a couple looking at redevelopment, just given the location, and then a couple of users as well — all were either restaurant or bar-type users,” he said.
On the buyer’s side, the deal has been in the works since the spring, when Left Hand Brewing Co. acquired Dry Dock. The latter moved all its production to the former’s Longmont brewing facility and kept operating its longtime taproom in Aurora. But Left Hand CEO and founder Eric Wallace said Dry Dock’s lease was coming to an end there early this year, and his team didn’t want to renew it.
Wallace and Charlie Cummings, his broker at Innovate Commercial Real Estate, tried to keep Dry Dock in Aurora, but Wallace said most of the available properties were newer, expensive builds in “unproven areas.” When the Pub on Pearl space popped up several months ago, Wallace said, it had the perfect feel for a taproom.
“This place has great bones in a good neighborhood,” Wallace said. “We had to quash our own strong desire to have a place in Aurora because this was such a good opportunity.”
Dry Dock signed a 10-year lease as a tenant for the 2,800 square feet.
“We like to know who owns the real estate to have those close relationships and be set up for the long term. … We intend to be one of the islands that survives as the industry goes through what it’s going through,” Wallace said, referring to struggles in the craft beer sector.
When the new spot opens, Wallace said, Dry Dock and Left Hand beer will be served alongside pub food. There will be a stage for live music and private events space. There’s a patio in the back but Wallace called it “pretty rough.” He’s not sure if it’ll be used.
Dry Dock is targeting a spring opening.
“There’s nothing significant to the build-out. We’re going to jump in there next week and see what needs to happen,” he said, explaining that the changes are going to be mostly cosmetic. “It’s got a warm feel, brick walls, wooden floors. It feels like a pub.”
BusinessDen reporter Max Scheinblum contributed reporting.
