Last week, on July 21st, it was announced that Berkeley location of Pyramid Brewery and Alehouse closed its doors permanently after 18 years of business. Although this sudden closure saddened many local Berkeleyans, the new availability of the Pyramid space opens up doors for the craft brew scene in the San Francisco Bay Area to expand even further. The Bay Area has always been a hotspot for craft brewing, but especially in the last 15 years the local brewing industry has taken off. Over 50 breweries call the Bay Area home and there are constantly new breweries setting up shop. While San Francisco continues to be a craft-brewing powerhouse, more and more of the spotlight is being put on the East Bay. With cheaper rents, wider availability of warehouse space, and an influx of young people moving from San Francisco, the East Bay, particularly Berkeley and Oakland, is the perfect place for these craft brewers to call home.
West Berkeley, also known as the “Drinks District”, is ground zero for the latest and greatest in craft brewing. Trumer-Pilsner, the Bay Area’s go-to German beer company is located one block off Gilman. The sour beer-centric brewery The Rare Barrel opened two years ago in West Berkeley. Fieldwork Brewing Company opened earlier this year two blocks from Pyramid, and Anvil Brewery is slated to open directly across the street from Pyramid in the spring of 2016. Because all of these breweries have taprooms and are in very close proximity to each other, this area is quickly becoming the place for beer-lovers to flock to during the weekends for beer tastings.
The location of the former Pyramid alehouse only makes this project more attractive. The beautiful brick building is located on 901 Gilman Street in the northwestern part of Berkeley. The Gilman district is Berkeley’s latest development success story. Once an area with very few specialty shops and foot traffic, this site has transformed into a retail hub with stores such as Philz, Whole Foods, Chipotle, Doughnut Dolly, and Farm Burger. Retail West, a San Francisco commercial real estate company, has been at the forefront of the Gilman district re-development and the recent Pyramid deal. The developer hopes that this versatile, 114k square foot building will become a campus-like environment for restaurants, distilleries, food production, maker space and breweries. There has already been a lot of buzz around this new project, as it opens up even more opportunities for the “Drinks District” to grow and for the Gilman district to cement itself as one the go-to craft brew hubs in Northern California.
Retail West, Inc. Retail West Inc., is a commercial real estate company based in San Francisco, CA. Founded in 2003, Retail West focuses on how to create the best retail environment through detailed attention to the plans, building configurations, amenities and graphics. For further information or to request services, please visit www.retailwestinc.com or call 415.292.7200.
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