Ecusta Brewing Company announces the purchase and a planned redevelopment of an 8,800 square foot historic building, once part of the company’s namesake, the Ecusta Paper Mill. Ecusta Brewing is an independent craft brewery founded in 2016 in Brevard, NC. August 26th marks the company’s 5-year anniversary.
Following a significant renovation scheduled to begin later this summer, the brewery will relocate from their current location to their new home at 451 Ecusta Road, Brevard, NC. The move will triple the company’s footprint, providing increased brewing capabilities, an expanded taproom, more outdoor gathering space to include a rooftop bar, a new kitchen/food truck concept led by Blue Smoke BBQ and future retail opportunities, and more employment.
The first phase of the project will include a substantial building demolition effort which will retain the basic structure and historic character of the building but will prepare the way for a complete retooling of the building. Unlike the mill which operated its own water intake on the Davidson River for raw water, the brewery will take full advantage of the City of Brevard’s municipal water system, supplied by Cathey’s Creek.
The company’s future home was originally designed and built to serve as the employee wellness clinic for the Ecusta Paper Mill in 1951. Historically the building was once part of the larger, +/- 535 acre mill site which surrounds this 1.5-acre site/building. During operations, the Ecusta Paper Mill supported nearly 2 million square feet of paper making facilities, dating back to the 1930’s. This property, like the former main production site were part of a North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (NCDEQ) brownfields redevelopment effort led by Renova Partners between 2007-2011.
According to Owner/Brewer, Josh Chambers, “We are extremely excited to realize this vision and bring this 1950’s era, historic building back to life. The location is awesome. When complete we will be directly on the Brevard greenway, future Ecusta Trail, and very close to the entrance of Pisgah National Forest and the Davidson River, connections that are important to both our company and community. This location comes with the added advantage of aligning our brewery with its namesake, and in our own small way, bringing manufacturing and life back to this legacy site.”
Chambers continues, “This project has already spanned many months and many partners. The Transylvania Economic Alliance was involved from the beginning, working to help advance our understanding of the underlying environmental history, brownfield program, and attempts to recover critical documents. The Western North Carolina Military Museum, having previously explored this building, generously shared their past analysis which proved to be a huge time and cost savings. Former mill employees involved in the construction, operations, and maintenance of the mill even took time to comb through archives and discarded documents in search of the original architectural plans. This has been a true community effort.”
“We are extremely excited to see this building find a new purpose. This brewery’s vision will help transform an underappreciated and often overlooked building into a new community gathering spot and hub for small business,” commented Amber Webb, Chair of the Transylvania Economic Alliance.
“We are thrilled to see Ecusta Brewing Company and their partners realize this expansion. Their success demonstrates the passion, hard work and special entrepreneurial spirit found throughout our community,” added Jimmy Harris, Mayor of the City of Brevard.
To learn more about Ecusta Brewing Company please visit ecustabrewing.com or contact 828-966-2337/info@ecustabrewing.com for questions or sales@ecustabrewing.com for sales needs. The Transylvania Economic Alliance is a 501c (3) organization that works to lead responsible economic development through engaging the private and public sectors to develop community assets needed to maximize opportunities for investment and quality job creation. For more information about the Alliance please visit www.transylvaniaalliance.com or contact Executive Director, Josh Hallingse at 828-393-4130.
