MassDevelopment loans $430K to Brockton Beer Company

October 4, 2021 : Boston Business Journal, by Jessica Bartlett

Brockton Beer Company has been working toward a November opening for months, and MassDevelopment is helping them get there.

A $430,000 MassDevelopment loan will provide working capital as the brewery completes the final steps to opening, covering equipment purchases and other startup costs. The loan is expected to help the brewery transform from a contract brewing operation to one with a full-fledged taproom.

“Craft breweries continue to stimulate local economies across Massachusetts,” said Dan Rivera, president and CEO of MassDevelopment. “Brockton Beer Company is choosing to invest in downtown Brockton, and we’re excited to see the impact that this brewery will have in bringing residents and visitors to the neighborhood.”

MassDevelopment has supported small and growing breweries as the industry continues its growth. In 2017 and 2018, it loaned breweries $10 million combined, and more recently, it has sought to use its revolving loan funds through the 2020 Cares Act to focus on small businesses impacted by Covid.

“As we learned along our recent statewide tour of small businesses, which included a stop at the Brockton Beer Company, our cities and towns are looking for us to continue leveraging federal ARPA funds as proposed by the administration to concentrate investments on main streets and in downtowns that will enhance the places these businesses want to set down roots and grow,” said Mike Kennealy, who serves as chair of MassDevelopment’s Board of Directors.

The brewery is the first for Brockton. Three of its five founders are Black, so it's also one of the few majority Black-owned breweries in the state.

“We believe in Brockton, and know what a successful brewpub in our city’s downtown will do for our community,” said Brockton Beer Company Co-Founder Ed Cabellon.

The brewery has been working to open since 2018, when four Brockton families pooled their resources and launched the brewpub they'd been discussing at Friday game nights for years.

When Brockton Mayor Robert Sullivan announced a revitalization of the downtown after his election in 2019, those friends saw a clear path forward.

The loan is on top of a $26,000 grant from the Brownfields Redevelopment Fund, which helps transform vacant, abandoned or underused industrial properties by helping address the environmental remediation of a site. At the brewery, developer NeighborWorks Housing Solutions used the funding to do additional remediation, after a Phase 1 clean up addressed underground storage tanks and contaminated soil.