The Richardson City Plan Commission recommended approval of a special permit for a distillery use and special development plan for Lockwood Distilling’s proposed facility during its April 2 meeting.
“Distillery buildings are a rare unicorn in the sense that we have very specific requirements that we need to operate,” Lockwood Distilling co-owner Evan Batt said. “Finding a building in a metropolitan area that’s been accommodated is very, very challenging.”
Two-minute impact
The proposed manufacturing and storage facility is located at 816 S. Sherman St. Batt said there are no plans to have a tasting room within the facility, but the 19,602-square-foot building will have meeting and office space.
There will also be storage for packaging materials, whiskey barrels and liquid ingredients, which will accompany three proposed filling lines within the building, Batt said. There are also plans to double the current production team workforce from 10 employees in a space with 3,700 square feet to at least 20 in the new facility, he added.
“This will take our business into the next decade of expansion,” Batt said.
Digging deeper
Batt said the additional production space is needed to keep pace with the company’s growth following its opening of the first tasting room in Richardson in October 2019. Another tasting room is open in Fort Worth, while a third North Texas restaurant had a soft opening in downtown McKinney earlier this year.
With the increased production capacity, Batt says he hopes the business can continue growing.
“We’ve got an ambition to multiply our business by tenfold in this location,” Batt said.
What’s next?
Richardson City Council is expected to consider approval of both the special permit and special development plan during its April 8 meeting.
Batt said he is eager to get to work on adding necessary components to the facility, including fire sprinklers to the building, as soon as he has approval from the city.
“We’ve been crowded for too long and are building our business in anticipation of this,” Batt said.
