Traverse City Whiskey Co. has broken ground on a new 70,000 square foot distillery in hopes of turning Northern Michigan into a hub for whiskey in the Midwest.
The Traverse City-based distillery announced the new $20 million production facility as a “first-of-its-kind distilling campus” set on 35 acres of countryside in adjacent Elmwood Township. The site, which repurposes an abandoned Cherry Growers Co-Op cherry processing facility, will allow the company to control all aspects of the production process from mashing, fermenting and distilling to even growing some of the grain used in its spirits.
“Our new headquarters will be an all-encompassing campus that will provide a unique immersion in whiskey culture and industry and will add a new experience to the thriving Northern Michigan agritourism industry,” said Chris Fredrickson, Traverse City Whiskey Co. (TCWC) co-founder and president, in a statement.
The craft whiskey maker said in a press release that demand has outstretched capacity at the current “Stillhouse” facility in downtown Traverse City, forcing it to outsource some production to out-of-state partners. The new production campus will allow the brand to boost its current capacity from three barrels per day to nearly 70. The new location will also have storage for 24,000 barrels of whiskey per year.
Partially funded by a $750,000 grant from the Michigan Business Development Program, the expansion was praised by Governor Gretchen Whitmer in October as a sign that the state’s economy is growing.
The project is expected to create nearly 100 jobs and “foster long-term economic opportunity in Northern Michigan’s agribusiness sector,” Whitmer added.
By framing the project as a way to boost the local economy, TCWC has said it will be able to help other local distillers with co-manufacturing capabilities.
“One thing that we realized is that this wasn’t just an opportunity to support our own operation,” Fredrickson told the Leelanau Ticker. “It could be an opportunity for us to help others grow their operations, too. So we’ve very intentionally designed and built this facility both to accommodate us and to help other craft distilleries grow their business as well.”
Referred to as “The Whiskey of the North,” TCWC was founded in 2012 as a bourbon distiller using Frederickson’s great grandfather’s whiskey patents from the 1800s. Drawing on the region’s cherry-growing industry, TCWC makes a signature cherry whiskey and launched a line of cocktail cherries in 2018. A year later, TCWC expanded further with the acquisition of Cocktail Crate, a New York-based whiskey mixer brand.
Along with a portfolio of straight bourbons, ryes, wheat whiskey and even a North Coast Gin, the craft distiller sells a line of RTD whiskey seltzers called Highball in three varieties: Whiskey Seltzer, Lemon Seltzer and Cherry Seltzer.