Firestone Walker Brewing Co. to expand Paso Robles location

Firestone Walker Brewing Co. will be building new warehouse and parking space in a roughly $6 million expansion of its Paso Robles campus on the south end of town.

The project, at 1400 Ramada Drive, was green-lighted by the Paso Robles Planning Commission and does not need to go to the City Council for approval.

The expansion, which business co-founder Adam Firestone says will likely begin later this year, will add 9,000 square feet of office and warehouse space to an existing 19,500-square-foot building, a new 55,000-square-foot warehouse and 39 more parking spaces.

The projects will be constructed just north of the existing brewery.

The company hasn’t gone out to bid on the project yet, but Firestone estimates the entire project will cost about $6 million.

The new 55,000-square-foot warehouse would be constructed on an undeveloped 3-acre site next to the former Nu-Way Cleaners & Laundry Inc. building, just north of the brewery. Renderings of the warehouse show a large building with two towers, all in an architectural style matching the existing brewery with metal siding and patterned concrete. The empty parcel it’s slated for is currently being used for outdoor storage of materials and equipment, such as beer kegs.

“(This) just moves some stuff indoors that (currently) sits outdoors. And otherwise adds more parking for us,” Firestone said.

The empty parcel is also a staging area for construction equipment, which will be removed from the brewery campus when the new warehouse is built, according to plans submitted to the city.

The expansion will require adding two new warehouse manager positions, which Firestone said could be employees promoted from within the company. He said that promoting from within is important to him because his business “succeeds because of the quality of the locals — well educated, passionate, family centered.”

The midsized brewery was established in 1996 in Santa Barbara County and opened in Paso Robles in 2001. It also has a location in Buellton that includes a restaurant and bar as well as Barrelworks, the brewery's barrel-aged and wild ale beer project.

The planned expansion is the latest in a series of growth spurts for the brewery. In recent years, Firestone Walker has expanded its brewing operations and tasting room and opened the Taproom restaurant at its site in Paso Robles. Elsewhere, the company is also expanding into the Los Angeles area with a new taproom, experimental brewhouse and educational space slated to open this year in Venice.

This story was originally published July 1, 2015 at 3:12 PM with the headline "Firestone Walker Brewing Co. to expand Paso Robles location."