Williamsburg’s burgeoning wine and spirits community has drawn Rick Wasmund to the city for years.
Now Wasmund plans to buy the former Lord Paget motel on Capitol Landing Road to make his Sperryville-based Copper Fox Distillery — the only North American microdistillery that hand malts 100 percent of its barley — a permanent part of the city. Copper Fox would be the first microdistillery in the Historic Triangle.
Wasmund’s offer to buy the motel from the city for $600,000, brokered by RJS Associates, will go before a public hearing at the June 12 City Council meeting.
Wasmund, who attended the official announcement Tuesday at the 901 Capitol Landing Road site, became connected to the Williamsburg area through his relationship with Blue Talon Bistro, one of a few area restaurants that sells his spirits.
Adam Steely, Blue Talon co-owner, said Wasmund has been a fixture at the restaurant’s annual Occasion for Taste, a wine and spirits festival each October, since it launched in 2006, offering tastings of his whisky and spirits at the festival.
Late last year, Wasmund made casual mention he was looking to expand to a second location, as his Sperryville distillery will soon max out its production potential. He is currently selling 11,000 cases per year, and plans to increase production to the distillery’s limit of about 50,000 cases.
Steely, a member of the city’s Economic Development Authority, said he pounced on the opportunity to sell Wasmund on the idea of opening that location in Williamsburg. Steely connected him with various city officials, including Economic Development Director Michele Mixner DeWitt, who later helped show Wasmund several properties around town.
“It’s fair to say it was love at first sight,” Wasmund said of the Lord Paget location, the last on DeWitt’s list of properties to show him. “It didn’t take more than about 15 seconds to convince me.”
Wasmund, who plans to live in the rear part of the property with his wife and daughter, said he immediately envisioned how he could refurbish the entryway and quickly found the lobby building of the seven-building motor court motel had everything he would need to carry out his vision.
He sees the potential to produce about 80,000 cases from the Williamsburg location, which will also offer tours, tastings and a retail shop. Though the Sperryville location already offers tours, the tasting aspect of the business will be unique to the Williamsburg distillery.
“I think tastings are more in demand these days,” Wasmund said. “I think it could be profitable and offer something to tourists.”
Wasmund said Copper Fox is committed to using Virginia-grown ingredients, buying all its grain from one Northumberland County farmer named Billy Dawson.
In the best-case scenario, Wasmund sees the Williamsburg distillery — still unnamed — selling unaged products next spring or summer. Aged products from the city location will likely go on sale in 2016.
The sale comes amidst efforts from the city to revitalize the Capitol Landing corridor, which was once a main thoroughfare into the city.
Down the street, Evelyn Nursery is in the middle of renovations on the city’s old public works building property at 910 Capitol Landing Road that had been vacant for years. City Council approved that project in April, with council members praising nursery owner Tom Evelyn for his small part in helping to transform that area.
Addressing that corridor has been in the city’s sights for years as part of the official goals, initiatives and outcomes, Assistant City Manager Jodi Miller said.
In the city’s 2012 Economic Development Plan, 901 Capitol Landing Road was listed as a property the city was actively trying to market “to the private sector for a use that will benefit the corridor.”
City officials believe the potential sale to Copper Fox Distillery carries out the city’s initial mission of finding a business for the property that could help with the revitalization, Miller said.
Wasmund said he has become aware of the city’s goals for the corridor and thinks he can contribute to the efforts by doing the best he can to run his business successfully.
“My job is to take care of [the distillery],” Wasmund said. “If that works, and the city continues on this track, the rest should take care of itself.”
The city finalized its auction bid for the motel in November 2011, paying $697,000 for the property that had been assessed at $2,753,400. The most recent assessment shows the property, on 3 acres of land, valued at $877,100.
The city predicts the distillery will generate about $216,000 in tax revenue for the first six years, then $86,000 annually after the sixth year.
City Council will host a public hearing on the sale at 2 p.m. June 12 in the third floor conference room of the Municipal Building, 401 Lafayette St. If the sale is approved, Copper Fox will need to submit an application for a special use permit to run the distillery.
Microbreweries, microdistilleries, microwineries and microcideries were added to the city’s zoning ordinance as permitted uses — with a special use permit — in general business districts last year.
Related Coverage:
