Craft breweries, adaptive reuse, and neighborhood revitalization

Abstract

Abstract In recent decades, the number of craft breweries in the United States has increased dramatically, increasing from around a thousand in 1996 to over six thousand today. In order to minimize start-up and initial operating costs, many craft breweries have located in older buildings in economically distressed neighborhoods. Craft breweries are particularly adept at engaging in adaptive reuse, with the result that they occupy buildings that were previously once churches, cinemas, fire stations, etc. This investment by craft breweries, in conjunction with investment by other businesses (as well as the public sector), has resulted in the revitalization of many of these neighborhoods. Neighborhoods that were once full of abandoned buildings and suffered from social problems such as high crime rates have become destinations for residents and tourists alike. At the same time, however, there is a dark side to this neighborhood revitalization as rising real estate values has forced many established, often low-income, residents to leave these neighborhoods. In this paper, I examine the growth of the craft brewing in the United States and the preference of many craft breweries for inexpensive building space in economically distressed neighborhoods.