Lansing Brewing Company closed its doors in 1914 when local prohibition laws were passed. It took 99 years, but Barfly Ventures of Grand Rapids will revive the historic downtown business, opening their own Lansing Brewing Company in the summer of 2013.
“We have really strong ties as a company and as a family to East Lansing,” says Barfly Ventures owner Mark Sellers. “I got a call from Pat Gillespie about doing something in his building, and that got me thinking about doing one thing in Lansing and one in East Lansing.”
Lansing Brewing Company is now taking shape in an approximately 6,000 square foot space in The Gillespie Group’s Stadium District development on Michigan Avenue. The bar and restaurant will brew their own beer and have a full food menu.
Barfly Ventures is also developing a bar in East Lansing called
HopCat. Sellers says the Lansing area was an ideal location to expand his Grand Rapids-based operation because his project manager lives in East Lansing, and the distance is short enough for him to remain active in the businesses.
“I feel I need to be present at my bars,” says Sellers. “I don’t like to be an absentee bar owner.”
Lansing Brewing Company will employ approximately 50 workers and is scheduled to open in the late summer of 2013.
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