The Lewis County Commissioners last week unanimously approved leasing its Packwood Business Park located just west of downtown Packwood to the Longmire Springs Brewery.
The site was previously an ammunition manufacturing facility. The business park was created in 1996 to help build jobs and additional tax revenues via the East Lewis County Public Development Authority.
Husband and wife team Amy Besunder and Peter Charbonnier, former Seattlites who closed up their Ballard brewpub following a downturn in the once thriving business due to COVID-virus disruptions, are the new tenants. The brewers relocated to living full-time in Packwood in 2008 (but still kept brewing in Ballard) and have long planned to open a brewpub and taphouse in Packwood. The Packwood building is a great fit for their plans, Besunder said.
The former Ballard brewpub operated by the husband and wife team, called Populuxe Brewing, was highly regarded before it closed at the end of 2020. In 2018, it won the prestigious Small Brewery of the Year by the Washington Beer Awards. The competition featured 1,297 beers entered by 181 Washington breweries.
“We had always talked about, envisioned bringing a high-quality brewery to this community, with living-wage jobs, with a community space for people to gather,” Besunder said in a previous report by The Alliance. “We looked around at several spaces, none looked right for us.”
That changed this last summer when they spotted the PDA’s space. Besunder has been flabbergasted by the support from area leaders.
“We have been offered all the assistance in the world,” she said. “It is a very different attitude than you get in Seattle. The difference in support is night and day. It’s amazing. The way people connect here is just so authentic.”
The brewers recently visited Dick’s Brewery Company in Centralia, a titan in the state’s brewing industry.
“They (Dick’s) make it work in a space that is very similar to the Packwood space,” she said.
According to their website, “When we open, we will have outdoor and indoor seating areas with cozy fireplaces. Our establishment will be family and dog friendly. While we won’t have a kitchen, customers can bring their own food to enjoy with a pint.”
