Five Wives distillery opens massive production facility at West Ogden business park
A new Ogden's Own distillery facility sits at 615 W. Stockman Way, inside Ogden City's Trackline development.
Community members gather for a sunrise ground breaking celebration of the new Ogden's Own Distillery on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2019. Construction workers raised giant wall panels with a crane to shape the new facility.
OGDEN — The newest tenant inside Ogden City’s developing west side business park has officially opened its doors.
Ogden’s Own distillery held a ribbon-cutting ceremony Wednesday, marking the opening of its new 32,000-square-foot manufacturing facility at 615 W. Stockman Way, in the heart of the city’s Trackline development and Ogden Business Exchange business park.
Steve Conlin, president of Ogden’s Own, said the facility was constructed to accommodate the company’s need for increased manufacturing. The craft distiller launched in 2009 and sells several brands of liquor, which until now had been produced at its 6,000-square-foot facility at 3075 Grant Ave. Its top-selling and most well-known brand is Five Wives vodka.
“We’ve evolved from a two-person startup conceived on a hope and a prayer a decade ago to a multi-million dollar operation,” Conlin said.
In addition to the ramped up production operation, the new West Ogden facility features a bar that will serve as a tasting room for the distillery’s products. The new building will also include a retail shop and an amphitheater, where the company plans to host events with local musicians and artists. The company eventually plans to bring a full-scale concert series to the site.
Since the COVID-19 crisis began gaining momentum, the company has been producing hand sanitizer. The company has increased its hand sanitizer production on a weekly basis and has produced more than 11,000 gallons so far. With the new facility operational, Ogden’s Own can produce up to 7,000 gallons a week. The company’s “Five Wives” hand sanitizer has been given to first responders, local medical facilities, corporations, government employees and Utah residents.
According to Ogden City Council documents, the Trackline Economic Development project includes 122 acres between 24th Street and Middleton Road from the railroad tracks to G Avenue. Beginning in the 1930s, the area was home to the Ogden livestock yards and was once a thriving economic hub. When the stock yards were shut down in the 1970s, the area quickly grew dilapidated and had been mostly uninhabited until Trackline was established in 2013.
The development includes a mix of commercial, manufacturing and light industrial space, including a 51-acre outdoor recreation business park called the Ogden Business Exchange, where the new Ogden’s Own facility is located. The park is centered around the historic Ogden Exchange building, once the administrative home of the stock yards.
Today, a mix of local and international companies now do business out of the park. Ogden-based Enve Composites, a manufacturer of high-end carbon fiber bicycle wheels and components, and the Italian bicycle components manufacturer and distributor Selle Royal Company both have facilities at the park. Roosters Brewing Company’s opened a 13,000-square-foot production brewery on the site in 2018.
Ogden Deputy Director of Community and Economic Development Brandon Cooper said the development continues to move along as expected, despite the ongoing pandemic.
Cooper said the city is working to remove the long dilapidated and contaminated Swift Building at the site after buying the property in 2017 from Utah-Smith, a business entity connected to Bert Smith, the late founder of local retailer Smith and Edwards Co. Redevelopment of the land was delayed after the discovery of a large quantity of chemical materials stored inside the building. The Environmental Protection Agency has since cleaned the site.
The council approved a $1.8 million deal last year to sell the Swift site to Atwater Infrastructure Partners, which plans to build a 125,000-square-foot aerospace manufacturing facility there. The deal is contingent upon the city removing the building and remediating whatever environmental problems remain.
Cooper said the city is working on clearing remaining asbestos at the site but is on schedule to start final demolition of the building during the first part of May.