A brewery is looking to set up shop in Derby by renovating a 105-year-old former factory on Roosevelt Drive.
Plans with the title “Bad Sons Beer Company” have been submitted to the Derby Building Department regarding a 12,000-square-foot brewery and tasting room at 249 – 251 Roosevelt Drive.
“The vats have been ordered,” Mayor Anita Dugatto said Thursday. “It’s exciting because it will be built in an area that will bring people to Derby.”
“Bad Sons Beer Company” could open — after extensive renovations and receiving the necessary approvals — at a property formerly owned by the Manger Die Casting Co. Inc. on Roosevelt Drive.
The project is still in the review stage by Derby City Hall staffers such as the building official and the fire marshal, so the details could change as the project moves forward. The Derby Planning and Zoning Commission is also considering tweaking the zoning in that area.
Breweries make beer, then sell the product to restaurants, bars and stores.
“Bad Sons Beer Company” is a project of William DaSilva, one of the founders of SBC Restaurant & Brewery in Milford.
William and his brother, Mark, have been in the craft brewery business for 20 years.
“We’re Valley guys,” said William, who was raised in Shelton prior to moving to Milford seven years ago. His brother Mark is a Shelton resident.
How Valley?
“Bad Sons” is an acronym. The B is Beacon Falls, the A is Ansonia, the D is Derby, while “SONS” is Seymour, Oxford, Naugatuck and Shelton.
DaSilva said Roosevelt Drive is a perfect location for a brewery because it’s easy to get to. It’s in the middle of surrounding breweries in Oxford, Woodbridge, and, of course, Two Roads, the large (and expanding) brewery in Stratford.
DaSilva said he hopes “Bad Sons” is a mini-Two Roads.
“But we’re much, much smaller than them. We’re really just looking to be a strong local player,” he said.
Drawings on file with the Derby Building Department state the brewery would feature a “tasting room” designed to hold 232 people.
But those are max-out numbers. The owners expect to comfortably accommodate 75 to 100 customers in the tasting room, which will include a bar, tables, and general gathering area.
There’s a small kitchen planned, too, but the place will not be a restaurant.
The property has a large existing parking area, but the number of spaces requested was not available on the documents reviewed by the Valley Indy Thursday.
The brewery is slated to go into a 1.8‑acre property bordered by A and B streets on the east and west. The property fronts Roosevelt Drive/Route 34, next to Roosevelt Tower Antiques and Salvage.
The rear side is on Park Avenue, where single-family and multi-family houses sit across from it.
“Books by the Falls,” an independent specialty bookstore, has been on the property for years.
DaSilva said the plan is to make some repairs to the building to help the bookstore — and allow the business to remain.
“We like him. He’s a nice guy, and as long as he wants to stay there, he’ll be there,” DaSilva said.
Two other businesses on the property — a wood shop and a gym — will be moving out.
The Roosevelt Drive property was owned since the 1960s by the Manger Die Casting Co., which was founded in Derby in 1956. Manger stopped operating sometime in 2015, according to documents connected to the project.
Publicly available land records show Paul K. Manger, the president of K.W. Realty Co., sold the property on Oct. 11, 2016 to 251 Roosevelt Drive, LLC for $500,000.
William and Mark DaSilva, along with John Walsh of Orange, are listed as managers of the LLC.
Derby received a $1,250 conveyance tax from the sale. The state received $6,250.
“Craft beer” breweries — that is, local or regional beer makers that don’t produce mass quantities like mega beverage companies such as Budweiser — have blossomed in recent years.
As of 2015 craft breweries comprised 12 percent of the market share of the overall beer industry, according to the Brewers Association.
Then there’s this:
“ … in 2015 the number of operating breweries in the U.S. grew 15 percent, totaling 4,269 breweries — the most at any time in American history.”
Assuming everything goes as planned, “Bad Sons Beer Co.” would be a stone’s throw from The Dew Drop Inn, a bar that transformed itself from a neighborhood watering hole into a destination, thanks, in part, to the addition of a large selection of craft beer to its taps early on.
The Dew Drop Inn is owned by Jason and Kenna Carlucci.
The DaSilva family have a good reputation in the restaurant/bar business, Jason Carlucci said, so the “Bad Sons Beer Co.” would be a great addition to Roosevelt Drive.
“I’m definitely excited, and why not?” Carlucci said. “A new spot locally to bring new clients and customers to the area is a great thing. I look forward to not only supporting them, but to working with them. They seem like a bunch of good guys.”
The Derby mayor said Carlucci’s Dew Drop Inn pioneered craft beer in west Derby. She’s hoping the new brewery will act as an anchor for a Roosevelt Drive rejuvenation.
Leslie Creane, the Derby economic development director, said the DaSilvas’ company had been eyeing Derby for about a year.
Concerns about environmental contamination — and the costs associated with testing alone — can be a major hurdle to redevelopment in former factory cities such as Derby and Ansonia.
Derby hooked up DaSilva to the Naugatuck Valley Council of Governments, who were able to snag an $85,000 state grant for environmental testing.
The state grant was from the Department of Economic and Community Development, and is aimed at economic development projects.
In December, the Derby Board of Aldermen approved a license agreement with the brewers allowing the company to put equipment on a sliver of Derby-owned land next to the property.
Derby’s charging $1 per year for 10 years.
Carmen DiCenso, president of the Derby Board of Aldermen, said the brewery will enhance that section of Roosevelt Drive.
Creane said the hope is the brewery will act as a catalyst for other properties along the road.
