Deschutes plans new warehouse

Published 12:00 am Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Deschutes Brewery plans to expand its warehouse on Shevlin Hixon Drive, according to a preliminary application with the city of Bend.

The application calls for 57,423 square feet of new warehouse space adjacent to the existing 38,500-square-foot warehouse behind the brewery at SW Simpson and Colorado avenues.

“We’re out of space,” said Gary Fish, founder and CEO of Deschutes Brewery. “We saw in the vicinity of 15 percent growth in 2014 alone. Our forecast is to continue to grow, and, in order to do that, we have to have somewhere to put the beer when it comes off the packaging line.”

The application requests a routine meeting before the brewery submits detailed plans. The meeting allows planners a chance to identify issues that might arise with a specific site. The brewery, through architect Blaise Cacciola, of Bend, submitted the application Dec. 19. No site plan was included.

Fish said the company expects to have the new building up next year, based on a schedule dictated by the city approval process. The bigger warehouse would include the same passive design elements built into the existing warehouse, he said. That includes skylights and thick, slab walls that help retain a cool temperature inside.

“Part of what the warehouse will allow us to do is bring back a lot of our barrel aging and specialty beer program that we’re using an off-site warehouse for,” he said.

The 6.85-acre lot is in a mixed riverfront zoning district. A warehouse is a permitted use, although the application itself must be advertised and a period allowed for public comment before the city approves construction. Deschutes County online property records show the brewing company paid $74,353 in taxes on the property this year. Its assessed value is $5.2 million.

Increased truck traffic on Shevlin Hixon is one probable result of a larger warehouse. Fish said the company is mindful of the number of trucks coming and going, “and we’ll continue to be aware of that.”

New hires may result, also; Fish said the overall brewery budget allows for another 20 hires in the coming year. The company employs about 450, but “We’re growing our way up to 500,” he said.

The brewery expanded its distribution this year to Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, Wisconsin and Washington, D.C., according to Fish’s blog.

— Reporter: 541-617-7815,

jditzler@bendbulletin.com