The owner of District Brew Yards, a beer production facility, taproom and food hall that is home to four breweries, plans to shut down and bring new concepts to the buildings on Chicago’s Near West Side and in the northwest suburbs.
CBRE said it has been hired to find buyers or tenants for the 17,290-square-foot building at 417 N. Ashland Ave. in Chicago and the 11,906-square-foot facility at 700 N. Milwaukee Ave. in Wheeling, Illinois.
The move comes more than six years after Steve Soble began the unique, shared-facility format in the Chicago building in 2019. The Wheeling opening followed in 2022.
Expected changes at the District Brew Yards facilities come after a shake-up in the craft beer industry in recent years, which has led some well-known breweries in Chicago and other cities to shut down amid an ever-growing field of competitors and changing consumer tastes.
Last year was the first time since 2005 that the number of craft breweries in the U.S. that closed outpaced brewery openings, according to the Boulder, Colorado-based Brewers Association. There were 9,796 craft breweries nationally at the end of 2024.
Big changes in Chicago have included Metropolitan Brewing shuttering along the Chicago River on the North Side, Goose Island closing its original brewpub on Clybourn Avenue to move within the Salt Shed concert venue along the river and Revolution Brewing winding down its original spot in Logan Square to consolidate operations in a production facility and taproom in Avondale.
Soble said after 35 years in the food and beverage world and 13 years as a brewer, he’s ready to step back.
“I’m a man of a certain age,” said Soble, 61. “It’s either time to dig in and alter the concept or let someone younger step in with a new concept. We see the writing on the wall that it’s going to be difficult to continue to do this.”
Soble is the owner of District Brew Yards and Burnt City Brewing, one of the four breweries operating within the two facilities. Separately owned breweries that share the two spaces are Around the Bend Beer Co., Twisted Hippo Brewing and Casa Humilde Cerveceria.
The Chicago beer collective will continue to operate for an undetermined duration as CBRE seeks buyers or potential new tenants, Soble said. The Wheeling facility will close Sept. 28, he said.
Soble previously was one of the owners of Southport Lanes, a North Side bowling alley, bar and restaurant in Lakeview that closed in 2020 after 98 years in business. That building is now leased to Boka Restaurant Group, which operates multiple concepts there.
The idea for District Brew Yards was hatched after Revival Food Hall gained popularity in the Loop business district.
“I asked myself how come there’s no food hall for brewers,” Soble said. “We were one of the first to do this in the country. Now things are slowing down and it’s time for me to move along.”
The asking price for District Brew Yards’ Chicago building is almost $4.5 million, while the Wheeling asking price is nearly $3.6 million.
CBRE is marketing the buildings as turnkey spaces for other brewers of restaurateurs.
The Chicago property also has long-term potential for a larger redevelopment, according to Dominic Soltero, one of the CBRE brokers marketing the properties. It is not far from fast-growing Fulton Market and plans by the owners of the NBA’s Chicago Bulls and NHL’s Chicago Blackhawks to start a multibillion-dollar, mixed-use development called the 1901 Project.
“We’ve had discussions with a couple of brewers, but we want to put it out to the market,” Soltero said. “It may wind up being something other than a brewery. More development in the area is going to bring more culture and more ideas to the area.”
For the record
CBRE brokers Dominic Soltero and Tom Svoboba are marketing the properties for sale or lease.