Minneapolis has become a hub for microbreweries, according to research from CBRE.
CBRE reported that since 2011, microbreweries with taprooms have occupied more than 480,500 square feet in the metropolitan Minneapolis area. Credit the 2011 “Surly Law,” which gave craft brewers the right to sell their products to consumers onsite. CBRE says that this law resulted in a boom in the number of new microbreweries and an expansion of local, existing ones.
To determine the economic impact of the law, CBRE’s research team charted the real estate footprint of breweries with taprooms that had entered the market since the law’s passage. CBRE also tracked the footprint of existing microbreweries that added taprooms following the new legislation.
In 2011, just two breweries with taprooms did business in the Minneapolis market, covering a total of 20,000 square feet. Today, more than 45 microwbreweries and taprooms totaling more than 480,000 square feet operate in Minneapolis, St. Paul and surrounding suburbs.
Sandy Barin, vice president with CBRE, said that the research is important to him and his fellow commercial brokers.
“It gives us insight into a trend that’s making the Twin Cities an attractive place to live, work and play,” he said in a statement.
Most of the area’s microbreweries occupy industrial and retail space. In the Minneapolis area, some of the entrepreneurs behind these breweries have gotten creative, transforming such sites as a grain silo and 100-year-old theater into microbreweries.
CBRE predicts that the total occupancy of these microbreweries in the Minneapolis market should reach more than 551,220 square feet in 2016, with 15 new microbrewery and taproom facilities planned for the metro area before the year closes.
