From Spartanburg Herald-Journal by Adam Orr
A little West Coast flavor should arrive in the Upstate before year’s end.
The team at Drayton Mills Marketplace announced Thursday the project has signed the new flagship location for Holliday Brewing, a nano brewery expected to feature more than 25 different beers. It’ll occupy the more than 2,400-square-foot Suite 125, and plans call for a roughly 1,900-square-foot tasting room, comfy seating, large TVs and an outdoor, dog-friendly biergarten.
Drayton Mills also said Thursday at least two other area businesses, Hypersign and the Lauren Ashtyn Collection, will use the mill to expand their current operations. It’s the latest business buzz at Drayton Mills, which recently announced big menu changes at The Standard and a second location for direct-pay medical provider Palmetto Proactive.
Holliday Brewing is the brainchild of brothers Jim and John Holliday, who grew up in San Diego, which has a reputation as a kind of ocean-side craft beer mecca.
The duo’s creations have names like Aloha Beach, a hazy India pale lager, and Hannah, an orange blossom honey ale, which they say are inspired by the Holliday family’s love of adventure and travel. You can also expect a variety of India pale ales.
“San Diego now has over 200 breweries,” Jim Holliday, who will lead operations for the company, said in a statement. “It’s just saturated. We talked about this area, which is near the thriving craft beer scene in Western North Carolina, and just said this is ideal. Drayton Mills is the perfect location for us, and it will give us the opportunity to introduce our West Coast-style beers to South Carolina.”
Head Brewer John Holliday said the company would offer up a large selection of IPAs, in addition to an amber and a “well-rounded palate of beers for every consumer.”
The pair have cultivated a set of skills over the years that might just make them ideal to get a nano brew startup off the ground.
John Holliday has worked for five years as a maintenance manager for San Diego-based White Labs, a company that provides yeast and quality testing for breweries nationwide, and Jim Holliday has more than three decades of experience as a manufacturing manager.
Tara Sherbert, managing principal of TMS Development and owner of Dratyon Mills Lofts and Marketplace, said the deal with the Holliday brothers has been in the works for more than a year-and-a-half. She described the nano brewery concept as one that allows brewers to bring their creativity to life through smaller batches.
She said the brothers will move into the residential side of Drayton Mills in September and should have the brewery off the ground by November. You can expect tastings and sneak peaks of the brewery in action before that, she said.
Michael Spangenberg, an architect who has worked on the Drayton Mills project, joked that the brewery might be the project’s worst kept secret, but he called it the perfect size for the marketplace.
“It’s a right-sized brewery for Drayton, a community-based brewery,” Spangenberg said. “That’s one thing about this craft beer movement; where once you had the neighborhood bar, now you’ve got the neighborhood brewery.”
The brewery will share a common wall with Drayton Mill’s new event space, and Spangenberg said the goal of adding the brewery is to build a hub for not only Drayton Mills residents, but the wider Spartanburg community.
“I think it’s going to be a wonderful place to be,” Spangenberg said.
A new HQ
Drayton Mills also said it’ll now host the new headquarters for the Lauren Ashtyn Collection.
A nationally recognized brand, the Spartanburg-based company was formed in 2015 by Lauren Ashtyn Guest and her husband, Christopher Guest.
The company, which sells luxury hairpieces for men and women, launched a downtown salon in 2017, saw its products added to Grammy Awards gift bags in the same year, and has expanded to multiple markets in the United States, Canada and Europe. It also boasts a massive social media presence, with some 170,000 followers on Instagram alone.
The company has developed tour and wholesale departments to accommodate its growth.
“The Lauren Ashtyn Collection is honored to partner with Drayton Mills and their other rapidly growing businesses on their campus,” the company said in a statement. “Drayton Mills is a perfect fit with the luxury of the Lauren Ashtyn Collection. The company anticipates a strong and prosperous collaboration with Drayton MIlls as both continue to grow.”
Hypersign arrives
High-tech will also call Drayton Mills home with the expansion of Spartanburg-based Hypersign, according to company founder Neil Willis. The company will be relocating from its current corporate office on Daniel Morgan Avenue in downtown to Drayton Mills.
Willis previously owned Cynergi Systems, the largest audio-visual integrator in the Southeast, and said he realized the need for a quick, simple digital sign platform, an idea which later led to Hypersign’s digital software solution.
The initiative expanded into its own company in 2013, and has consumers in all 50 states, Canada, Mexico, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia, with customers ranging from educational institutions, healthcare, government, sports and businesses.
“With its historic architecture and great location on Spartanburg’s east side, Drayton Mills Marketplace is a beautiful campus with great amenities,” Willis said in a statement. “Its location is also convenient for our current employees, which is important to us as a company.”
Sherbert confirmed earlier this month her sole ownership of Dratyon Mills Lofts and Marketplace. The project’s residential spaces are fully leased, and Thursday’s announcements means the majority of the project’s commercial spaces are now booked.
She said in a statement the goal has always been to provide an “it’s all here” destination for the community, where residents and visitors can enjoy the mill’s amenities from “dusk to dawn.”
“With our luxury apartments now full, we believe our combined marketplace tenants create the optimal mix for this thriving community,” Sherbert stated. “We could not be more thrilled and honored to make these announcements today.”