FREDERICKSBURG, Va. — It’s beginning to come full circle for Neil Burton.
After successfully launching Strangeways Brewing in Richmond back in 2013, Burton is ready to take the brewery to where it all began for him: Fredericksburg.
Strangeways is set to open a new $2.5 million production brewery and taproom in the growing city wedged between thirsty metros Richmond and Northern Virginia.
“It’s something that we’ve been looking to do for about two and a half years,” Burton said. “And we secured what we think is the perfect location for it.”
The 10,100-square-foot site – 350 Lansdowne Road in Fredericksburg – is no run-of-the-mill industrial site.
For Burton, it’s where his foray into business began with his father.
“It’s actually the building we used to run our chain of seven clothing stores from,” Burton said of his father’s 45-year-old clothing store called Scotsman, later called RVA Garment Zone. “My father used to have his offices in the basement, and after he built the location in the 1980s, we were able to expand the business.”
Located on 3 acres near the Fredericksburg Fairgrounds, the site is planned to include a 10-barrel brewhouse, a large taproom, live event space, private event space, retail shop, arcade and outdoor beer garden.
“The brewhouse is about half the size of the Richmond system,” Burton said, referring to Strangeways’ Henrico County home at 2277 Dabney Road, which will remain open. “Having the production facility in Fredericksburg allows us quicker market access into Northern Virginia.”
The new satellite location is slated to open in the first half of 2017 and create 27 jobs.
