Benaroya Bringing Beer Business Back to Tumwater?

For over 100 years, pisswater cheap beer was produced at Tumwater’s Olympia Brewery. In 2003, then-owner Miller Brewing Co. shut the place down and since then, according to locals, the city’s been a “ghost town.” (Supporting evidence: Tumwater’s front page lists Tumwater TV as an "Emerging Issue.") But the artesian water may begin flowing again. Seattle-based Benaroya Company is poised to purchase the historic facility for $45 million.

The property’s current owner, All American Bottled Water Corporation, miserably failed to, um, bottle water at the old brewery and is crossing the t’s on its bankruptcy paperwork. If the deal goes through—it depends on the whims of a judge and inspection of the 120 acre property—Tumwater wins big. If Benaroya plans to bring hops and yeast strains back to the facility, Olympia—the land o’ lawmakers—would stand behind the product, as promised last year. And if filling beer cans isn’t in the brewery’s future, the city still has a heavyweight investor/developer in its midst.

Maybe Tumwater will birth a giant chunk of greenspace/retail space/mixed-income housing before Seattle does. Maybe Benaroya has something else entirely in mind for the property. Tumwater TV will surely keep us posted.