GOOCHLAND COUNTY, Va. — Richmond-based Hardywood Park Craft Brewery broke ground on its new brewery project Friday in Goochland. Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe and Congressman David Brat attended the ceremony. Hardywood plans to spend $28 million over the next five years to expand its operations into Goochland.
Plans call for a 60,000 square foot brewery, packaging and distribution hall, a taproom, an amphitheater, an extensive garden and equipment to increase production capacity. The Goochland facility, located on 24 acres in the West Creek Business Park, will “complement” Hardywood’s current 12,000 square foot facility near the Diamond in Richmond.
Since its opening, Hardywood has quickly produced some of Richmond’s most buzzed about beers. In 2012, Hardywood’s Gingerbread Stout received a perfect 100 score from BeerAdvocate magazine – making its yearly release a red-letter day among local beer aficionados. The Richmond brewery chose a wooded area off of 288 near West Creek for its second location over sports in Raleigh-Durham, NC, Chesterfield and Richmond.
“We got a built in audience there with Capitol One,” Patrick Murtaugh, one of the brewery’s co-founders, said about the new location, which is close to Capitol One’s sprawling campus.
“Goochland was the better option,” Murtaugh said.
He also said Goochland County and the Commonwealth came through with some enticing incentives, including tax breaks from the county totaling up to one million dollars, and more than one million dollars from the state in grant money.
Those incentives “really helped tip the cards in favor of Virginia and Goochland specifically,” Murtaugh said.
The new site will feature an amphitheater, a tasting room, and an extensive garden. Murtaugh said the new location will most likely open in the spring of 2017.
