Roosters expanding with a new production brewery in west Ogden
OGDEN — A long-time pillar of Ogden’s restaurant community is expanding by opening a new brewery in a neighborhood that, until recently, has been mostly forgotten.
Roosters Brewing Company held a groundbreaking ceremony Thursday celebrating what will eventually be a 13,000 square foot production brewery in west Ogden.
The facility, which is located near the intersection of Exchange Road and B Avenue, will be called Roosters B Street Brewery.
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The space will include a “quick bites menu,” a tap room and an outdoor amphitheater and dining area. The campus will feature an additional 6,000 square feet of retail and manufacturing space.
Owned by Pete and Kym Buttschardt, Roosters first opened in 1995. The couple took a gamble on what was then a still-blighted Historic 25th Street, but the establishment flourished. The popular brewpub opened a second location in Layton in 2005 and in 2013 they began bottling and selling their high-point beers at state liquor stores and other retailers.
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BENJAMIN ZACK/Standard-Examiner
Kym Buttschardt talks about the growth of Roosters Brewing Company alongside her husband, Pete, and son, Philip, at the groundbreaking for the new Roosters Brewery on Thursday, Dec. 7, 2017, in west Ogden. The Buttschardts, who started Roosters in downtown Ogden in 1995, plan to open the new brewery and restaurant in the summer of 2018.
“The two small breweries in Ogden and Layton have been at capacity for the last couple of years,” Pete Buttschardt said. “In order to keep the shelves stocked and expand, we’ve been working to create a dedicated production facility and move to canning. This new location really matches our brand and our vision.”
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Expected to open in the summer of 2018, the facility figures to be a key cog in Ogden City’s Trackline redevelopment project.
The development includes 122 acres between 24th Street and Middleton Road from the railroad tracks to G Avenue. The area was once home to Ogden’s livestock industry and operated as a thriving economic hub, but has been mostly abandoned since the stockyards closed in the 1970s.
The new Roosters site was once home to a Purina Dog Chow plant. The building was vacant for years and was razed in 2016.
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The city is in the midst of turning the once-depressed area into a mix of commercial, manufacturing and light industrial space. The development will include a 51-acre outdoor recreation business park called the Ogden Business Exchange.
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BENJAMIN ZACK/Standard-Examiner
A temporary tent sits at the site of the future Roosters Brewing Company brewery and restaurant on Thursday, Dec. 7, 2017, in west Ogden. The new facility along B Avenue will also feature space for additional retail and manufacturing companies.
In 2016, the Ogden City Council approved a land transfer and development agreement with MacBeer Group LLC, a partner in the new Roosters venture. The MacBeer group, headed by Dan McEntee, purchased 0.62 acres of land formerly owned by the city’s redevelopment agency.
Ogden Mayor Mike Caldwell says the group’s venture in West Ogden is reminiscent of earlier undertakings, referencing the Buttschardts’ entrance on 25th Street and McEntee’s early involvement in the Ogden Riverbend project.
“They are the DNA of this transformation you’ve seen in our downtown,” Caldwell said.
You can reach reporter Mitch Shaw at mishaw@standard.net. Follow him on Twitter at @mitchshaw23 or like him on Facebook at Facebook.com/MitchShaw.StandardExaminer.
