BERLIN – Town officials agreed to lease storage and parking space at Heron Park to Burley Oak Brewing Co. this week.
On Monday, the Berlin Town Council voted 4-0 to approve the lease of 7,000 square feet of warehouse space and parking area at Heron Park. Burley Oak will pay the town $1,900 a month for the space.
“This is something we’ve discussed informally off and on but this is the first actual taker in trying to generate revenue from those buildings until a permanent use is found or until they are leveled,” Mayor Gee Williams said.
Town Administrator Jeff Fleetwood said Burley Oak’s Bryan Brushmiller had approached the town a couple months ago about leasing storage space at Heron Park. Fleetwood said Brushmiller wanted to rent 7,000 square feet of storage space in the old processing building on the site as well as 15 parking spaces.
“On the north side of the processing building there’s a section of that building that has five bay doors that are nonfunctional as we speak,” Fleetwood said. “In my discussions with Bryan, what we think would be in the best interest of all — this is all at his expense — he would install a functional garage door in the middle bay and then the 7,000-square-foot space that is immediately beyond that bay door is what he would utilize.”
In a letter to the council, Brushmiller outlined his plans for the space.
“We decided as a company that it would benefit us and the Town of Berlin to lease space across the street at Berlin Falls as warehousing space,” Brushmiller wrote. “We love the idea of renovating this part of the building and hope to bring a bit of fresh life to the property. The use of this space will include dry storage and storage of our product waiting to be sent out to distribution all over the world.”
Fleetwood said the town and Brushmiller had agreed to a lease of $1,500 a month for the building space and $400 a month for the parking space.
The council voted 4-0, with Councilman Elroy Brittingham absent, to approve the lease. They went on to approve a similar agreement with Dr. Christopher Galuardi for parking space at the water tower on Route 346 for $400 a month. The space would allow Galuardi, who’s operated an office on Old Ocean City Boulevard for 14 years, to recruit another physician to his practice.
“My largest impediment right now to having him join the practice is the inadequate size of my parking lot,” Galuardi wrote in a letter to the council. “I only have 10 spaces and eight employees.”
