Page 8 - BusinessWest November 23, 2020

“That space over there is too close to those tables,” he said, gesturing with his hand to anoth- er portion of the bar. “And this space here is too close to people sitting over there; it’s a no-fly zone. This is only place you can sit at. It can be a little lonely, I guess, but people still like it.”
The fact that this conversation was taking place where it was — and that there were lines of blue tape all over the bar — could be considered remarkable. And maybe 18 months ago, it would have been, well, pretty much unthinkable.
Back then, it seemed as if what started as a good marriage was going to end up in a messy, very public divorce, with Iron Duke brewing beer in Wilbraham, and Westmass looking to fill a vacancy and move on from what had become a public-relations problem.
And then ... things changed.
As we retell the story of how we got here, and where we go from here, we need to go back a little further, to those walks Morin had with his wife along the river.
“My wife and I started a family about a half- mile from here,” he noted. “We used to walk our dog back here and talk about — as most in Lud- low did at the time — how it was a shame that this whole property was in the shape it was. When we put together our business plan, it just made sense to grow it here, in the town where we lived and close to our house.”
He initiated talks with the previous owner of the sprawling complex in late 2012, and discus- sions accelerated after Westmass acquired the property, because with that purchase came ambi- tious talk of redeveloping the mills into a multi- purpose destination that would include residen- tial, business, healthcare, and other uses.
“We wanted to be part of it because we had big plans for our small busi- ness,” said Morin, adding that what would even- tually become a highly scrutinized and much- debated seven-year lease agreement was inked in late 2013.
What followed was a year and a half of con- struction in one of the many so-called stock- houses on the property, the century-old, high- ceilinged, 6,000-square- foot facilities in which raw materials — jute plants
— were hung and dried for production in the mill complex.
The brewery officially opened on Thanksgiving Eve in 2014.
“We hit the ground
running — that first
yearisabitofablur,”he
recalled, noting that he
quit his job that month as a mechanical engineer and made brewing his vocation — and his pas- sion. The company steadily grew, drawing cus- tomers to its taproom in the mill and also putting its various products in cans and bottles, which were available at bars, restaurants, and some package stores.
Things were going pretty much according to
Iron Duke Brewing has added a food truck and tented beer garden at its Ludlow location, and soon will commence work on a permanent, two-tiered beer garden that will overlook the Chicopee River.
the script laid out in the business plan until 2015, when the company started hitting some speed bumps, as Morin called them.
They came in for the form of differences of opinion regarding just what the lease allowed at the premises.
“We found our- selves being backed into a corner regard-
Iron Duke
Continued on page 11
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8 NOVEMBER 23, 2020
FEATURE
BusinessWest
Staff Photo