USA: Boston Beer Co. received town meeting approval for tax incentives to build a US$70 million to US$90 million brewery

The Boston Beer Co. is working on a deal that would allow it to brew all its beer in-house - and a significant amount of it closer to home, The Patriot Ledger posted June 21.

The maker of Samuel Adams beer received town meeting approval last week in Freetown for tax incentives that would pave the way for the Boston-based company to build a US$70 million to US$90 million brewery on land off Route 24.

The project would allow Boston Beer to end its contracts with breweries in Rochester, New York, and Eden, North Carolina. It would also shift the company’s expansion focus away from founder Jim Koch’s hometown of Cincinnati to the company’s home state of Massachusetts.

Nearly two-thirds of the company’s beer is brewed at its newly expanded Cincinnati plant, with the bulk of the remainder at the two contract breweries. A minimal amount is brewed at the company’s Jamaica Plain brewery, where recipe development is handled and keg beer for the Boston area market is made.

The Freetown brewery, which could open as soon as 2008, would employ about 50 to 75 people.

‘‘Certainly having the Sam Adams brewery down in this region helps from a perception standpoint,’’ said Ken Fiola, executive vice president of Fall River’s economic development office. ‘‘It’s not a huge employment opportunity. But it is indicative of the fact that more and companies are looking to the South Coast for expansion opportunities.’’

Boston Beer spokeswoman Michelle Sullivan said the company will make a decision within the next three to six months. The company has other sites in mind, but this is the only property where the company has already landed a tax incentive package. In a sign of its importance to the company, Boston Beer CEO Martin Roper traveled to Freetown to speak at the town meeting last week.

Sullivan said the Freetown site, which is owned by Braintree-based Campanelli Cos., is attractive because of its access to the highway and to a freight rail line.

However, Boston Beer still needs to hash out an agreement with Fall River to connect to the city’s water and sewer systems. The section that Boston Beer would develop could be as small as 25 acres or as large as 48, Sullivan said.

The property is east of Route 24 and north of the Fall River area that would be served by a US$25 million highway ramp approved by the Legislature last week. Sullivan said she expects that traffic to the site her company is considering would still primarily use the current Exit 9 even after the ramp is built.

Sullivan said the company is also beginning discussions with the owner of its Jamaica Plain brewery property about a potential expansion to accommodate more brewing capacity and longer visitor tours.

‘‘The tours are overcrowded,’’ Sullivan said. ‘‘People are waiting longer than we would like.’’

The company also plans to move its headquarters from the Back Bay to the Boston Design Center in South Boston in September. Sullivan said the company employs 125 people at its two Boston locations, about 100 in Cincinnati and about 25 salespeople in the field.

Sullivan said building a brewery near the headquarters is one selling point for a Bay State location: ‘‘Boston is our home, so having a presence in Massachusetts is appealing to us.’’

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