Deschutes Brewery has purchased a 4-acre bare lot next to its warehouse, increasing its property portfolio around the southwest Bend brewery.

Through a limited liability company called Sandlot Partners, the brewery bought the lot at Shevlin Hixon Drive and Southwest Columbia Street for $4.15 million in April, according to property records. Deschutes bought two other nearby buildings during the past couple of years.

Deschutes Brewery founder and CEO Gary Fish said he has no immediate plans for the new lot. He said the company bought the property rather than see it go to another buyer.

“It’s a way for us to control our destiny,” he said. “It finally just got to a point where a deal made sense.”

The Bend-based brewery has been bubbling with growth over the past year. It was ranked the sixth-largest craft brewer in the nation last year and 12th overall by the Brewers Association.

Fish said in January the company was planning the largest, most expensive expansion in its nearly 26-year history. A month later, the Bend City Council approved an enterprise-zone property tax break for the brewery. Deschutes’ application calls for a $45 million project that would double its capacity.

Fish said Tuesday that no plans have been finalized for the expansion.

“We are currently working on being able to expand our packaging within our existing footprint, so that will allow us to forestall looking at any new buildings for the moment,” he said.

Along with the brewery on Southwest Simpson and Southwest Colorado avenues, Deschutes owns two buildings south of the brewery.

In October, Deschutes bought a 12,000-square-foot office building at 975 S.W. Colorado for $1.85 million. And in January 2012, the company purchased a 2,148-square-foot building at 969 S.W. Colorado for $450,000, according to property records. It was converted into the brewery’s sales and marketing office.

“We will continue to need more property as we continue to grow,” Fish said, “and they’re just not making any more of that stuff.”

— Reporter: 541-617-7818,

rrees@bendbulletin.com