Green Valley’s New District Brewery is auctioning off its equipment, ARLnow has learned, but the door is not fully closed on the local brewery opening elsewhere.
Arlington’s only production brewery is putting items like tanks, pumps, a keg cleaning system, tap heads, and furniture up for auction.
“Everything to start your own brewing business,” reads the website.
The auction runs through May 1.
This is in anticipation of New District Brewery closing its doors at 2709 S. Oakland Street by the end of May, as ARLnow first reported earlier this year. A rent increase and a lease disagreement are the reasons behind the plan to shutter. An indoor dog park and bar set to take the brewery’s place.
Co-owner Mike Katrivanos told ARLnow at the time that he remained hopeful that New District Brewery would find another landing spot in Arlington with ownership continuing to search for properties to purchase. The equipment liquidation seemingly points to the brewery closing for good, but Katrivanos tells ARLnow that is not necessarily the case.
The auction is simply a contingency plan “running in parallel” with the brewery’s continued search for a new space. If they were to able to purchase a new property, ownership could hold back some of the equipment for sale.
Plus, many of the tanks, kegs, pumps, and furniture were specifically designed, purchased, and “geared” for the particular location at 2709 S. Oakland Street.
“A chunk of it won’t work in other spaces… we would need to retool if we were to move,” says Katrivanos.
New District continues to be in the market for a 4,000 to 6,000-square-foot commercial property. Katrivanos says the brewery is only currently looking in Arlington. That may limit choices, he acknowledges, but it’s where the brewery’s customer base is and where Katrivanos grew up.
“If I can’t make it work in Arlington, we will shut down permanently,” he says.
There are potentials that may be in the works and it might all be sorted out within a few weeks, Katrivanos suggested. Until then, New District will continue to prepare for its closing in two months.
While it has not been fully planned out, there will be farewell gatherings and events at S. Oakland Street. Katrivanos says he’s thinking about doing special trivia nights, a major sale of some sort, and a “big thank you party for the community.”
Plus, the brewery “fully plans to honor” its commitments to serving New District beer at the Columbia Pike Blues Fest in June and the Arlington County Fair in August, with the help of several partner breweries.
Katrivanos is hopeful it will all work out and New District will remain in the only place it has ever called home.
“I want to continue to invest in Arlington and keep the business open. We’ve got to cover ourselves [with this auction] in case, God forbid, we shut down permanently,” he says. “We are all waiting to see how it all shakes out.”