Central Standard Moving Distillery To Harley-Davidson Headquarters

Central Standard Craft Distillery rendering. Rendering courtesy of HGA.

Roll north the barrel.

Central Standard Craft Distillery announced Wednesday that it is relocating its primary distilling operation to the Harley-Davidson headquarters.

It’s part of a growth plan that will enable the distillery to expand its production capacity 20-fold and introduce public tours and a tasting room to its primary production facility.

“This tour will be absolutely incredible,” co-founder and CEO Evan Hughes told Urban Milwaukee.

The new distillery, estimated at 73,000 square feet in size, will be formed from a collection of attached, one-story brick buildings at the western edge of Harley-Davidson’s headquarters, 3700 W. Juneau Ave.

Hughes said the new location will pair well with Harley-Davidson and would include references to its history. The motorcycle manufacturer recently opened Davidson Park on former parking lots on the campus and, subject to the outcome of a contentious CEO search, could scale back or end its work-from-home policy and reactivate much of the headquarters complex. An affiliate of Central Standard will purchase the property for the distillery from Harley-Davidson.

“We started Central Standard Craft Distillery to be a part of Milwaukee and grow with it. This partnership and expansion continue to affirm that mission,” said co-founder and president, Pat McQuillan in a statement. “With this purchase, we’re excited to deepen our roots in the city we love, and to show our commitment and investment in the Milwaukee community.”

The centralized location will be a logistical boon for Central Standard, which currently operates the production side of its business from three separate buildings.

The company outgrew its primary distillery, 2330 W. Clybourn St., and added a finished-goods warehouse on W. Mill Road on the city’s far northwest side and a raw materials warehouse in the far-flung suburb of Jackson. The new facility will bring all of those operations under one roof.

The downtown tasting room, Central Standard Crafthouse & Kitchen, 320 E. Clybourn St., will remain. It opened in 2021. An airport bar is scheduled to open later this year.

The distillery expanded into Minnesota, Illinois and Michigan in 2024. It also added a line of bourbon cream liqueurs and a ready-to-drink (RTD) product line partnership with Leinenkugel’s. The latter, the company says, has far outperformed expectations.

“With the success of our Crafthouse & Kitchen, as well as the regional growth of our spirits and [ready-to-drink] products, this expansion presents the perfect timing and opportunity for continued strategic growth,” said Hughes in a statement. “We’re well-positioned to exponentially grow our production capacity, to continue to meet consumer demand for our offerings, and to engage with the Milwaukee community in new and exciting ways.”

HGA is serving as the architect of record on the new distillery. The firm also worked on Davidson Park and past Central Standard projects.

“Building on the great work spearheaded by the Harley-Davidson Foundation to rejuvenate the Juneau campus, we’re looking forward to it entering its next chapter. And as we enter our next phase of investment at Juneau Avenue, we’re excited to be welcoming Central Standard to the campus,” said Harley-Davidson Chief Human Resources Officer and foundation president Tori Termaat.

Guests will access the new facility by entering off of N. 38th Street, which also provides access to Davidson Park and Harley-Davidson University.

Central Standard intends to sell its W. Clybourn Street distillery through brokerage firm Colliers International.

The new distillery promises one unmentioned synergy that harkens back to the early days of Central Standard. The new facility is directly across the street from Molson Coors. Tourists and locals alike will be able to take two tours without having to travel far. It’ll still be a longer walk than the distillery’s early days, when it was located inside Milwaukee Brewing Company’s S. 2nd Street brewery.

Central Standard launched its business in 2014 and opened the W. Clybourn Street facility in 2017.

The company hopes to open the new facility in 2026.

Renderings

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