Woburn, Massachusetts-headquartered Lord Hobo Brewing is planning to build a taproom in Tampa, Florida, according to a post on a Tampa community group’s Facebook page.
United Residents for Better Neighborhoods (URBN) Tampa Bay shared plans for a taproom and beer garden at the intersection of Amelia and North Florida avenues in the city’s Tampa Heights neighborhood.
“The developer’s rep reached out to us a few days ago saying the design was still in flux and they wanted community feedback,” URBN Tampa Bay wrote.
The plans include a 6,185 sq. ft. beer garden and 4,000 sq. ft. of “recreation area,” as well as a bar, kitchen and roof deck. The blueprint does not appear to include production space.
The location of the Tampa taproom is the site of a building with “no historic character or contribution to the streetscape,” Patrick Thorpe, owner of the project’s architect of record, Allegedly Design, wrote on Facebook in response to a resident’s concern about the loss of historic buildings in the area. It will be torn down as “repairing it would not be fiscally responsible.”
“Our team is working to develop a facade for the new building that is responsive to the historic district,” he wrote. “Although it will be new construction, we are working to develop a more pedestrian friendly streetscape with a consistent building frontage that enhances the district, not one that ignores the existing character.”
Lord Hobo – which Daniel Lanigan founded in 2015 after running a craft beer-centric bar and restaurant of the same name in Cambridge, Massachusetts – expanded distribution to Florida in 2017, according to CraftBeer.com. The Tampa location would be the brewery’s first taproom outside of Massachusetts, where it operates locations in Woburn, Cambridge and Boston’s Seaport District.
Lord Hobo distributes to 12 states on the East Coast. Its Woburn-based production facility includes 40- and 10-barrel brewhouses, 40 fermenters and seven bright tanks. The brewery’s annual capacity is 240,000 barrels of beer, according to Lord Hobo’s website.
In 2020, the most recent year for which data is available from the Brewers Association, Lord Hobo’s output declined -36% to 30,075 barrels.
Last year, as the craft beer industry reckoned with the harassment and misogyny faced by women in its ranks, Lanigan stepped down as CEO after his name surfaced in at least three posts from unnamed workers who alleged that he made inappropriate advances toward female employees.
Beer industry veteran Brian Walsh replaced him as CEO and the company has made several key leadership hires since then, including Anheuser-Busch InBev alumni Dan Moerman as VP of sales and Keith Gabbett as head brewmaster.
News of the future location follows announcements of taproom closures of well-known craft breweries’ offshoots, including Modern Times, Oskar Blues and Magnolia.
Lord Hobo and Allegedly Design did not return requests for comment as of press time.