Rumors of Stone Brewing location in Manchester

This would be big news for Manchester and beer lovers.

August 20, 2014; 9:14 AM • by Richard Hayes

By now every beer snob and most average Joes know that Richmond has made the list of three finalists to be the home of Stone Brewing‘s Eastern Empire Outpost. There is even a Facebook page, Bring Stone Brewing to Richmond, with nearly 1,400 likes trying to woo Stone to Richmond.

When talking about a location everything has been focused North of the River near Rocketts Landing. Richmond BizSense.com has very interesting news that Manchester might be in running as an RVA location as well. A decision is expected by Stone in the next 60-90 days.

Thalhimer Realty Partners is requesting a special use permit to allow a 130,000-square-foot brewery on its Reynolds South tract in Manchester. The application was submitted Aug. 6, as California-based Stone Brewing Co. nears a decision on where to put to its planned East Coast operations.

Thalhimer is requesting the special use permit to allow a brewery at a 6.3-acre tract bounded by Porter, Bainbridge, 4th and 7th streets. The permit would allow the potential brewing facility to expand to as big as 220,000 square feet and brew in excess of 100,000 barrels of beer each year.

Those specs line up with numbers in a Stone Brewing Company RFP for a major brewery, restaurant and retail facility to serve as the company’s base of operations on the East Coast.