Hello Boulder Creek Brewing Company Friends and Interested Investors,
Here’s the news, progress, and update as of October / November, 2023:
RIP Bart Bullington, Brewmaster Extraordinaire
As some of you may know, our original Brewmaster, Bart Bullington, passed away suddenly late last year, after suffering a stroke. He was in his fifties, in otherwise good health, and not overweight or symptomatic of any other issues.
He was a great man, and a superb Brewmaster and planner. He will be sorely missed.
Moving Forward
Jack Whybark, Bart’s original Mentor and colleague of many years, has agreed to be our Brewmaster Pro Tem, during the launch period and as a consultant after that.
Jack is a highly experienced Restaurant Manager and GM, and has also stepped up to the plate to help us with business planning and revenue projections, for both the Brewing side, and the Restaurant side, going forward.
We posted the Brewmaster update on our website, ( https://bouldercreekbrewing.com ) earlier in the year, and have been working on our projections with Jack. More on this below.
The Good News Is™:
-
We have paid off the original seller financing - we now own the building and real estate free and clear - this is huge!
-
We’ve received a permit extension - as of July. We need to proceed with the concrete cleanup, and call for a new inspection on that, as well.
-
We are working with our Restaurant GM and Brewmaster Pro Tem Jack Whybark, on a detailed projections spreadsheet, and a full business plan.
-
We have located a willing partner to take our spent grains (Waste from the brewing process), and thereby minimize our wastewater, which will help streamline the permit process with the county and the state, (See below), and likely allow us to increase our targeted restaurant capacity.
-
We have strong community support and enthusiasm, even including other prominent local Brewers, who used to work at the former Boulder Creek Brewery - they are now successful owners / Brewmasters, and have reached out to me personally to offer their help and support however they can, to help us reopen!
The Current Issues
Water / Septic:
-
We are still working through the septic issues with the CA State Water board and the County, utilizing Hogan Land Services, our septic consulting firm.
-
We have four alternatives we are now evaluating; all of them will require some costs and modifications to the existing system, which is no longer approved, unfortunately, and the “Grandfathered” system is no longer sufficient to host a restaurant of even the same capacity as it was in 2015, around 65 people - much less a brewery with higher wastewater requirements.
So this means we will need to replace or enhance the septic system, at significant expense $$$.
The Upside of this:
The Silver Lining, is that our initial design had capped the occupancy at 65, due to the limitations of the existing system’s capacity
-
Replacing or enhancing it will allow us to expand the capacity significantly (We are still exploring how much)
-
Higher capacity translates directly to higher revenue projections, which will mean easier loan approval for the construction loan.
Possible Revisions
As a result, we will need to revisit both the contractor bids, as well as the engineering, and review possible design revisions / minor modifications ($$$).
Old and New (Full) Lender Package
As many of you know, after months of slow or non-responses, our previous lender rep failed to move forward with our 2-tier SBA loan, based on the preliminary business plan and docs we had worked closely together with him to prepare.
Given now that we have Jack, and his extensive experience as Brewmaster & Restaurant GM, the forthcoming fully-detailed long-form business plan, with our own well-considered projections, will put us in a better position with Lenders, and allow us to put together a full loan package (including the detailed business plan), that we can circulate around to multiple lenders to give us several choices, and a competitive advantage with them.
This will likely put us in the driver’s seat with respect to the lenders and relationships.
Community Response and Buzz
-
We have had universally positive and enthusiastic reaction to our commitment to reinstate the iconic Brewery and meeting place anchoring the downtown Boulder Creek area -
-
And multiple, repeated print media articles about us, with regular reachout from local authors and social media.
-
We even made the cover of the Santa Cruz Mountain Bulletin!
-
We have also had outreach from two local owners / Brewmasters - both of whom previously worked at the brewery - they have pledged their support!
Opportunity
This investment opportunity is to be a grounding part of the rebirth of the iconic Boulder Creek Brewing company; investors such as yourself would potentially own shares on the process.
The headwinds have been formidable, but we can now see a light at the end of the tunnel, with a likely increased seating capacity and therefore higher potential revenue.
We can accept investments in several forms; the two primary ones being either Convertible Notes, which convert directly to shares of equity, or our online methods:
Patreon: https://patreon.com/BoulderCreekBrewingCo
GoFundMe: https://gofundme.com/f/revive-the-boulder-creek-brewing-company
PayPal: https://paypal.me/BoulderCreekBrewing
If you’re looking to purchase equity, contact us about the Convertible Notes.
Let us know if there’s another platform you prefer, or contact us with questions.
For Your Amusement / Entertainment:
Attached are:
-
An original growler from the BCB, from the pre-2016-era :-)
-
A takeout-menu from the same timeframe :-)
Both of these I personally re-discovered during a recent move :-)
Now is the time!
We need your help - with you, we can do it!
The community support we have received so far, is outstanding!
I have looked forward for so many years to seeing the Boulder Creek Brewing Co come back to life, and play Bluegrass / Local / Acoustic / Americana music again - We are so close, and I am honored to have been able to get us this far in doing so.
Everyone we know, our other investors, local musicians, friends, family, contractors, engineers, and all of you on this list, all look forward to getting the BCBCo back up and running - we have made it this far, and are almost to the home stretch, now!
Target Opening Date
The projected / targeted opening date, is July 2024, as of this writing.
This assumes we have ongoing support, responses, exposure, buzz, and ongoing investments from the community -
More investments generally translates to a sooner opening date! :-)
Let us know, the sooner we receive $$$ and/or firm commitments from investors, the sooner we can announce the official opening date -
Best regards,
Joe
Managing Member
Detailed Development, LLC dba Boulder Creek Brewing Co
joe@bouldercreekbrewing.com
