By Michael P. Walsh
Special to the Voice
Woodbridge craft brewery New England Brewing Co. announced a tentative lease agreement Nov. 1 to relocate to the former Savin Rock Conference Center in West Haven.
Marty Juliano, NEBCO’s director of business development, heralded the news in front of the seaside conference center with Mayor Nancy R. Rossi, state Sen. James J. Maroney, D-Milford, and state Rep. Charles J. Ferraro, R-West Haven.
Juliano was joined by Connecticut Brewers Guild Executive Director Phil Pappas and NEBCO founder Rob Leonard, Director of Operations John Dieli, Director of Brewing Operations Greg Radawich and Director of Sales and Marketing Jamal Robinson.
Also attending the late-afternoon announcement were City Council members William X. Conlon, D-2, Gary Donovan, D-at large, and Colleen O’Connor, R-at large, as well as city Treasurer Michael P. Last and mayoral Executive Assistant Louis P. Esposito Jr.
Under the lease agreement, which requires City Council approval, NEBCO, the brewer of Sea Hag and other popular India pale ales, would build a two-story, 52,000-square-foot craft brewery at the site of the conference center on the Savin Rock shoreline.
The center — formerly The Casino and Harbour Mist restaurants and originally Phyllis’ Restaurant — opened in April 1997 and closed for renovations in February 2019.
NEBCO was founded by Leonard in Woodbridge in 2002.
Pappas said that after 20 years, NEBCO has found its forever home — in West Haven.
Juliano said the new brewery would include a production facility and office space, along with event space and a taproom for up to 1,000 patrons.
“This is the place you want to be,” said Juliano, a native of West Haven. “The community is second to none.”
Rossi praised the agreement and thanked NEBCO for choosing the prime West Haven site to brew its craft beer line, including Sea Hag, the No. 1 craft IPA in Connecticut.
The mayor said she always supported a long-term lease for the waterfront location and never entertained selling “one of the most beautiful pieces of property” in the city.
The brewery’s move from 175 Amity Road in Woodbridge to a larger site at 6 Rock St. in West Haven would create 75 to 100 jobs, Juliano said.
Plans include demolishing the existing building, built in 1971, and constructing a new building overlooking Long Island Sound.