Chelsea brewery suffers rental bender, wakes up in the Bronx

Manhattan microbrewery Chelsea Craft Brewing Company moved to a new location in the Bronx, after closing shop in its native Chelsea Piers last year due to (surprise!) skyrocketing rents.

Chelsea Craft Brewing was based out of Chelsea Piers from 1995 until it closed shop in April 2014, making the move to former parking lot at 463 East 173rd Street in the Bronx neighborhood of Claremont. The company is all set up at its new location and plans to start brewing beer next week.

Previously, all of the microbrewery’s profits went towards paying rent at its Manhattan location, head brewer Mark Szmaida told DNAinfo. While staffers initially focused on (surprise again!) Brooklyn when looking for a new home, they soon discovered (surprises everywhere!) that borough was out of their price range as well.

Potential locations in Brooklyn were, for the most part, only willing to offer Chelsea Craft Brewing three-to-five-year leases, Szmaida added, as opposed to the 20-year lease the company was looking for.

Despite the move from Chelsea to Claremont – where the Chelsea Craft Brewing will occupy a 10,000 square foot building that it built out to hold its brewery and tasting room – the company decided to keep its name.

Chelsea Craft Brewing isn’t the only New York City brewery to abandon its namesake, whether by choice or otherwise; Brooklyn Brewery is building a new 440,000-square-foot brew house in Staten Island featuring a 300-seat indoor restaurant and a beer garden. The brewery’s current Williamsburg home is up for sale and expected to fetch at least $50 million.

And in Bushwick, developers like Simon Dushinsky and Yoel Goldman have taken over the former Rheingold Brewery site, where they’re planning (SURPRISE!) residential redevelopments. [DNAinfo] – Rey Mashayekhi