Sullivans return home with grand plans
By Jason Arndt
Editor
Brewmaster Tim Sullivan has a dream to open his own brewery in downtown Burlington.
Now that dream is starting to come together as the Burlington native returned home with his wife, Claire, and 3-month-old son, Flynn, within the last month to begin planning for a brewery and taproom at the former Standard Press building at 700 N. Pine Street.
The taproom will feature different flavors and styles of beer.
Sullivan, whose parents Bob and Pat Sullivan bought the building in May, arrives from Ecliptic Brewing in Portland, Oregon, after spending a total of four years on the west coast.
“Over the last few years, when I pictured having a place to myself, it was always going to be Burlington,” he said. “As soon as I had the confidence to open up my own spot, I couldn’t picture it at any place other than Burlington.”
“It was always a dream to come back and open something up.”
Before working at Ecliptic Brewing, he attended the University of California-San Diego brewing program starting in 2015, while working as a brewer at Karl Strauss Brewing Company, the 40th largest craft brewer in the nation.
Sullivan spent his first couple weeks in Burlington meeting with officials from the city and the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, and receiving a planning schedule from his contractor.
According to Sullivan, municipal officials have expressed enthusiasm about the project. He is currently looking into whether his project can receive applicable grants.
“The initial meeting with them was to see what sort of grant this project might be eligible for, if any,” he said. “They seem pretty enthusiastic about it.”
Sullivan, however, will need to draft a formal business plan for submission to the Common Council to garner any applicable approvals.
The project
Last fall, the Sullivans explored multiple properties in Burlington for the prospective brewery, and saw the former Standard Press building as an ideal fit.
“I started looking at existing buildings in the city and it was really the best building available. We really couldn’t ask for anything better,” he said. “It has got the big production space with the big garage doors to get equipment in, it has got the history, it has got the room to grow.”
The building, built in 1925 as the interurban railway station, later became the home of Wisconsin Gas and Electric and in recent years the Standard Press and Southern Lakes Newspapers.
The project, meanwhile, calls for renovating the first floor of the building to create a taproom, brewery, public space and other amenities.
He plans to start renovating from the inside beginning this fall or early winter.
“That will be phase one, get that going, and then the upstairs, the second story, is kind of in the air. We are still bouncing around ideas on how to best utilize that space,” Sullivan said.
“Then, down the road, we would like to restore the exterior of the building to what it used to look like, pre-1950s.”
To read the entire story and see a photo of what the building looked like in the 1950s, see the Sept. 19 edition of the Burlington Standard Press.
-
-
-
-
-