Atlanta’s New Realm Brewing Is Already Expanding … To Green Flash’s Virginia Beach Facility?
Ed. note: Since publication of this story, New Realm has put out a somewhat vague statement that offers a few additional details without specifically making it clear whether they will open a second brewery in the Virginia Beach location.
Atlanta’s New Realm Brewing Co. is unique in a few ways. Not many new craft breweries these days open with the kind of pomp and circumstance that was possessed by the Atlanta standout when it opened its doors in January. That’s the kind of attention you get in this industry when you have a superstar brewer at the head of the beer program—that would be former Stone brewmaster Mitch Steele, who we interviewed only a few months ago.
But New Realm also had a lot of other things going for it from the very beginning—namely, no shortage of funding that was invested in a facility that immediately became one of the most complete and opulent in Georgia when it opened. Also on the horizon for New Realm from the very beginning was the idea of rapid growth and expansion. It’s just that no one really expected either to be this rapid.
Only four months after opening, New Realm is apparently expanding. According to a story in the Virginian Pilot, the Atlanta brewery is purchasing the former Green Flash facility in Virginia Beach, taking over what most seem to have regarded as a very nice space. This opportunity of course comes on the heels of the disastrous collapse of Green Flash in 2018, which most recently saw the brewery’s largest lender foreclosing on its loans. They would be taking over the 58,000 square foot facility, according to a representative of the Miller Group, which currently owns the building. The same source suggested that multiple breweries had interest in the space. Other, unnamed sources confirmed the same to Brewbound.