Scott Vaccaro, the 33-year-old owner and brewmaster at Captain Lawrence Brewing Co., only reluctantly went looking beyond Pleasantville for the industrial space he needed to expand his small business. The award-winning craft-beer maker has been in its 8,000-square-foot space at 99 Castleton St. for 5 ½ years and Vaccaro lives in the village. But no suitable space could be found there.
So Vaccaro with brokers went looking ”“ and looking some more.
“We looked at seven buildings that day,” he recalled of his stop at 444 Saw Mill River Road in Elmsford after a discouraging search. “This was the last building we looked at. We walked in, we said, ”˜Wow, this is perfect.”™”
Vacated last year by Mechanical Plastics Corp., the 18,243-square-foot space has ceiling heights that allow much larger brewing vats, loading docks and drive-in doors. It gives Vaccaro five times the brewing capacity and more than double the space of his Pleasantville location.
Owned and managed by Mount Kisco-based Diamond Properties L.L.C., the approximately 103,600-square-foot building has as its prime tenant Safe Haven Self-Storage and two smaller tenants, NBB Office Supplies Ltd. and Blueline Tactical and Policy Supply. Vaccaro liked its location on a busy retail and commercial corridor in Elmsford. “We need industrial but nobody wants to be in a heavily industrial park,” he said.
Represented by CB Richard Ellis brokers Kevin Langtry and William Cuddy, Vaccaro signed a long-term lease. He said construction of the brewery will begin as soon as town of Greenburgh officials approve his building plans. He expects to relocate operations from Pleasantville in the fourth quarter this year and open a 1,500-square-foot tasting room in Elmsford.
With the move, Vaccaro said he”™ll immediately add two or three employees to his staff of seven full-time and two part-time workers. “The plan is to grow substantially and we”™ll add more employees” as the business further expands, he said. With the larger space, the brewery will add a bottling line to market its brews in 12-ounce bottles.
