CW Retail - Craft Brew Report

TAFT'S ALE HOUSE CINCINNATI , OH RHINEGEIST &

Perhaps nowhere in the United States has the craft brewing trend meant more towards urban revitalization than in the once troubled neighborhood of Over-the- Rhine in Cincinnati. The area itself was once the Queen City’s brewing district but by the mid-2000s was in full blown urban decay with literally more than half its buildings abandoned. That’s all changed—it is now the town’s hippest neighborhood and that turnaround was accelerated by the arrival of a number of craft brewers. Rhinegeist is located in the historic 1895 Moerlein Brewing

Building where the concept has gone from a partial space user to taking nearly all of the 200,000-sf-plus facility with a full brewery, multiple tasting rooms and event space that is perpetually booked. Meanwhile, Taft’s Ale House

took an abandoned 160-year-old church and with the help of local

private/public economic development partnership, 3CDC, turned it into a stunning three story gastropub. Their beer ain’t bad either—Taft’s is opening a 60,000-sf brewing facility on the outskirts of town.

CUSHMAN & WAKEFIELD

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