Dan Thomas, who co-owns Hoptimystic Brewing with his wife Kelly, talks to customers about the beer offerings as the brewery’s tasting room in Sunapee, N.H., on Thursday, July 18, 2024. The Thomases are planning to open a new location on Main Street in Enfield, and will present a proposal to the Planning Board at their meeting on Wednesday. (Photo by Alex Driehaus, Valley News)
A plan to open a brewery next spring in a former laundromat is in jeopardy after the building’s owner decided to put it up for sale instead.
Brian Degnan said he decided to sell 59 Main St. due to “the bureaucracy that exists and the amount of effort it takes to invest money in Enfield,” he said in a phone interview.
Degnan’s concerns center on the town’s zoning process, including a pair of zoning variances the town refused to grant.
In the meantime, the brewery operator said it’s too soon to know if the new taproom will still open.
“There’s so much unknown right now,” Dan Thomas said in a phone interview. “We hope to” still make something happen in Enfield.
Hoptimystic, which Thomas owns with his wife, Kelly, is operating a tasting room in the former Anchorage restaurant in Sunapee Harbor through the end of November. The beer is brewed at a facility in Springfield, N.H., which is not open to the public.
In July, Degnan received approval from the Enfield Planning Board for Hoptimystic Brewing to operate in the former laundromat, which Degnan has owned since 2017.
In October, the Enfield Zoning Board of Adjustment granted Degnan’s request for a “special exception for a wholesale business” because the Thomases plan to sell packaged beer at the site in addition to serving it.
From Degnan’s point of view, that is when the process bogged down.
He asked the Zoning Board for an additional variance to allow “light manufacturing.”
Degnan contends the variance was necessary for insurance purposes, according to minutes from the Oct. 8 meeting.
The request created some complications since the phrase “light manufacturing” is not explicitly mentioned in the zoning ordinance in the community business zoning district where the building is located. Members did not quite know how to address it.
In the end, the town decided the variance was unnecessary.
“I think the ultimate thing was, I as the zoning administrator that I didn’t think he really needed a variance for the light manufacturing,” Enfield Land Use & Community Development Administrator Rob Taylor said.
Taylor offered to write a letter stating that a brewery was allowed to operate in the zoning district.
The zoning board voted to dismiss Degnan’s request “without prejudice,” meaning that he could bring it up again. Degnan withdrew his request.
He declined to elaborate on his rationale.
“I disagree with the zoning (process) and I have no further comment on that,” Degnan said in a phone interview last week. “I’d love to see it happen. I just can’t be the one to do it.”
The board also dismissed “without prejudice” a request for Degnan to put up a sign on the back of the building facing the rail trail. Businesses in the community business district are allowed to have one sign of up to 40 square feet attached to a building, Taylor said. Degnan asked for a variance to exceed that limit with signs on both the front and back of the building, but board members asked Degnan to come back with specific dimensions before they reconsidered his request.
The building is being listed for $500,000 through Vanessa Stone Realty. There has been talk among some Enfield residents about purchasing the building, Taylor said.
He declined to identify who is involved until there is an official proposal.
“We’re cautiously optimistic that something is going to happen here locally to get this project back on track,” Taylor said.
If someone buys it, the new owner will not have to get approval to operate the brewery from the zoning and planning boards, because the permissions go with the land and the structure, not the property owner.
“I wanted to do something good for Enfield … it was becoming too stressful to do it,” Degnan said, emphasizing that he does enjoy living in town. “I do things to make me happy and it was not making me happy.”
Degnan’s primary job is in the semiconductor industry and he works out of Austin, Texas, for a company based in Tokyo. He said he plans on “pulling out of” all of his commercial holdings in town.
Degnan said he would like Enfield to rethink its zoning to make it easier for businesses to flourish in town.
“I think there are a lot of missed opportunities,” he said.
Taylor defended the town’s zoning ordinance and said it helped residents.
“Zoning is very complicated and it’s hard when you’re the one having to follow the rules,” he said. “At the same time, when it’s your neighbor doing something, it’s good to have those rules.”
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