Have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that is needed and required to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing?
Thank you, counsel. Please proceed and share your screen.
Sure. Thank you.
so 3675 market street is located at the corner of markets street um and 37th street we have
frontage on filbert street as well um the property is occupied by an existing office building with
ground floor commercial retail space um two locals is a local brewery founded by two west
philadelphia natives that recently signed a lease for two spaces on the ground floor
um the they have approvals earlier this year that they obtained for a sit-down restaurant
at the tenant space that has its primary footage along 37th street and they also have approval for
an artist industrial use at the tenant space that is located at the corner of 37th and filbert
street next to the existing loading dock in the building um these are some renderings of the
the restaurant and the brewery as it's currently been approved um construction has been ongoing
the last few months and they are well on their way and expect to be opening soon here are some
current interior site photographs that show the progress that has been made the restaurant space
as well as you can see the production space as well in the rear of this picture and as I said
they do anticipate opening soon under the current approvals but they are looking ahead into growing
their business and specifically being able to produce beer for off-premises consumption as
part of the business. So, this application seeks approval to change the use of the retail space D,
that is the retail space located at the corner of 37th and Filbert Street next to the loading dock
for uses, limited industrial and wholesale sales and distribution. Those uses are not permitted
in the CMX4 district where this property is located. So, we are seeking a refusal to use
variances to permit limited industrial use and distribution use of the retail space D
on the ground floor. We did present this project to the RCOs at a community meeting on December
14th. We're happy to say that we have letters of support from West Powleton Saunders Park RCO
as the coordinating RCO as well as Powleton Village Civic Association and their letters
of support were included in the package submitted to the zoning board. Again, this is our first
four key plan. This is a plan being submitted today as a proviso plan in connection with this
application for the sole purpose of documenting the tenant space that is the subject of this
application. We are only seeking approval to change the use of retail space D to permit that
particular tenant space for limited industrial and distribution use. It's approximately 2,600
square feet. Again, at the corner here, all other previously approved uses of the building will
again at the corner here all other previously approved uses of the building will remain
remain the same.
the same so we are asking that this plan be approved as a proviso plan to the board's
decision should they be inclined to grant relief um with that i will ask um i guess to kohler who
is one of co-founders of the two locals brewing company to identify himself and raise his hand
for the board and share a little bit more information about two locals
My guest, if you haven't done so already, can you raise your hand?
Do we see his hand?
Do we see your hand?
The hand was up here, and it went back in.
OK. He's been enabled to speak. Please unmute yourself. Sure, sure.
So could you state your name, please, and spell for the court stenographer?
Sure. Mengestu Coiler. Could you spell, please, for the court stenographer?
Sure. M-E-N-G-I-S-T-U is Mengestu. The last name's Coiler, K-O-I-L-O-R.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Proceed, counsel.
Thank you.
Mengesu, have you heard the statements I made to the board?
Are they true and correct to your knowledge and belief?
Would you adopt them as your own?
Thank you.
With that, please, I'll scroll to the next slide, and you can please tell everybody a little bit about your company.
So Two Locals Brewing is Philadelphia's first Black-owned and operated brewery.
It's owned by myself and my brother, Richard Poiler.
So just a brief background.
Richard and I started homebrewing back in 2016, started with a one-gallon homebrewing kit,
spent some time formulating a handful of recipes, eventually won a silver medal at a homebrew
competition for our brown ale, which we call Nubian.
And then through our networking over, you know, the following years, we're really able to land a contract brewing partnership with Mainstay Brewing in 2021, whereby we're able to release our first commercially viable product, which was the brown ale and release several other beers later on.
And through our hard work, we're able to eventually sign a lease in 2022 at 3675 Market Street to open our own facility, production facility, 15-barrel system.
So production plus tap room as well.
Today, you can find us in several bars, taverns, restaurants throughout the city, Local 44, City Tap House, Lincoln Financial Field, to name a few.
and we are shooting to open this month, January 2024.
Okay, wow.
Just some additional background about us.
We grew up in West Philly.
So when we decided that we wanted to venture out
and open up a brewery and a tap room,
we wanted to have a footprint,
at least our first footprint in West Philly.
We're familiar with the area.
My older brother actually went to University City
before it went away.
We are also partnering with Liberty Kitchen,
which will operate our food menu as well,
which will also feature some of our West African cuisine.
Richard and I are of West African descent.
I was actually born in Liberia.
Our brewery is going to offer tours as well.
And we'll do, you know, obviously on-premise consumption, but we're also planning to do some small distribution as well.
So what we're asking is for some zoning relief, which will allow us to do a small amount of distribution.
We intend to distribute about between 10% to 20% of the beer that we're going to produce.
So for off-premise consumption, we'll probably have one to two pickups per month on the dock off of Filbert Street.
And just to be clear, within our space, we've accounted for proper ventilation.
for the production of the beer and we we've worked with our landlord to ensure we have
And we, we've worked with our landlord to ensure we have proper waste management internally that will be picked up, you know, frequently, you know, from the space as well.
Great. Thank you, Mangastu. With that, I think we can open it up to any questions that the board might have.
Pete Singer from Wexford might also be here if there are questions for ownership.
Questions from the board?
No, Chair.
no chair questions or comments from our attorney hillary emerson
not at this time it's questions or comments from the virtual audience
yes chair have jihad ali with a hand up okay he's been allowed to speak how could you state
your name is spelled please for the court sonographer uh good afternoon uh mr chairman
members of the board my name is jihad ali j-i-h-a-d-a-l-i and uh wait a minute wait a
minute do you swear or firm to tell the truth told truth nothing but the truth i firm please proceed
well happy new year mr chairman members of board thank you i um work at the enterprise center so
i wanted to take this opportunity to talk to the applicant they asked him to find his way at the
enterprise up to the enterprise center introduce himself to miss della clark because we're going
have an event this month next month that i think would be beneficial to him and because we're near
neighbors this project i support this project thank you very much for taking the time to close
we appreciate it is there anyone else in the virtual audience there was a hand it went back
down to your planning commission good afternoon chair peter bernard for the planning commission
the comprehensive plan recommends no change to the cmx4 commercial mixed use at this location
we feel the applicant has a demonstrated hardship and that the request is the
minimum necessary accordingly the planning commission recommends the board grant the
variance my 2023-005-669-3655 market street i vote yes with proviso use limited to space
Retail D on key plans stamped by ZBA on January 10, 2024. Thomas Holliman, my vote is yes with
provisos. James Snell, my vote is yes with provisos. Ishmael Shaheed, my vote is yes with provisos.
Thank you, counsel. Thank you. Number 15, MI 2022-004-584-5824 to 26 North Broad Street,
Alan Nockamson is the attorney.
Letter of opposition from Councilwoman Bass.
Letter of opposition from Concerned Community Association.
Letter of opposition from the Philippian Baptist Church.
Letter of opposition from people next door.
And people in 16-under the block of Widener.
Alan Nockamson is back in as a panelist.
Mr. Nockamson, you've been sworn.
Just if you would state your name, please.
Alan Nockamson.
And could you identify your client and the relationship to the property?
Yes, my clients are the tenants of this property.
Excuse me, Brandon Brown in the Diego Exchange LLC.
Excuse me.
Mike Sher has a few questions for you, sir.
Good afternoon, counsel.
Do you agree to weigh the reading of the refuser and stipulate to his accuracy?
I do. Have you emailed in all the required documents and exhibits that is needed and required to proceed with this case five days in advance of this hearing?
Yes, we have. Thank you. Please proceed and share your screen. Thank you.
All right. So, I'm here to present 5824-26 North Broad Street. What we have here is a pretty large
CMX 2.5 zone property on North Broad Street. And my client, the tenant, is currently using the
second floor uh for recording studio uh clientele tends to be um people who are like you know
younger um and you know maybe more young adults um and he's an educator by trade uh brandon brown
and what he's hoping to do is he he works in the music industry he works with creatives
and you know he's hoping to use the first floor almost as like an ability for people to perform
like live to family and friends um it's in basically he wants to create an incubator for
um it's in basically he wants to create an incubator for creatives and um you know again
creatives
his his background is in education he's a teacher at um at the uh media production he teaches media
production at the global leadership academy in west philly um born and raised in philadelphia
and i think this is a good i mean it's conceptually this sounds like a really good project
Right. I think the issue is the Philadelphia zoning code gets in the way. And we'll go over this. But, you know, originally we're proposing to have more than 50 people in the space. And, you know, what that turns into is a nightclub. And, you know, people get really scared about a nightclub.
And, you know, and I know the zoning runs with the land. And, you know, again, maybe Brandon's a great guy and he's going to do this amazing thing, but maybe it doesn't work out for Brandon. And all of a sudden you have like this zoning that runs with the land as a nightclub and people may not have the next person may not be as nice as Brandon. And we get that.
And so it probably has to be a revision one day, hopefully, of this section of the Philadelphia Zoning Code.
But until then, we have to figure out ways to make it work where we encourage, you know, people like Brandon and the concepts that he's trying to push forward, but protecting the community as a whole as well.
So we're going to go over the notice of refusal.
We do have correspondence from council members, Cindy Bass, and other people, and I want to address that.
We show the license of, you know, the legal use of the recording studio upstairs on the second floor, as well as a zoning permit.
And then, you know, you'll learn a little bit about the flex space of what he wants to do, hopefully.
And, you know, we're hoping.
And maps of the area, again, we're not taking an RSA5 property or some residential zoning or in a residential neighborhood.
This is a CMX two and a half property on North Broad Street, right?
Right. So and this is a property that's beautiful on the outside and hoping to make it on the inside.
And, you know, we're in part of Philadelphia where there are young people who need like an avenue to express themselves.
And we're hoping that this is that place. And but at the same time, protect the community from bad actors.
And I don't think Brandon's a bad actor. I think, though, that the Zoni runs with the land and people get scared of it and they see the word nightclub.
So I'm hoping that we can come up with a reasonable provisos.
But we'll see.
We'll go review maps of the area, photographs of the property inside and out, our plans and drawings, our RCO meeting notice, the lease to the property, our application for appeal, and our certificate of tax clearance.
And again, Brandon is in the virtual audience, and I would ask that he virtually raise his hand afterwards and a few questions for him.
And if he wants to speak too as well, I would ask that he does that as well.
So notice of refusal, this is a CMX two and a half property.
It's, you know, we didn't put in the applications for a nightclub.
But what we did say is a private club on the first floor and an establishment where 50 or more people regularly congregate primarily for entertainment purposes in the form of dancing.
We didn't. I submitted this application.
I did not put I don't think I put the word dancing in there, but I could be wrong.
An existing structure, no sign on this application.
So what we want to do is, is figure out a way that it makes sense for the community where we're not even having an inkling that this is a nightclub. So first things first, we would agree to a proviso less than 50 people. So then we're outside the nightclub category, and we're in the entertainment and assembly category. So I'm hoping that that diffuses the situation with the neighborhood.
it. Second thing is, you know, and we'll go over the letter that was written by Cindy Bass's
office. We don't want alcohol. Like originally we're like, oh, people have alcohol, you know,
they'll, you know, present, you know, BYOB. We get that the community is, you know, conceptually
against alcohol use at these type of properties. So we, again, not a forcible proviso, but we would
agree to, you know, no alcohol at the premises. And, you know, just to reiterate, this is not a
public club this is not a public space this is a private space and you know i can i don't know if
we can agree to a proviso in that respect um there was also like discussion in in a letter
we'll review it about cooking on the premises my client has no intention to create like a place
where they sell food they'll have catering outside catering but there's gonna be no cooking on the
premises. So we had a correspondence, you know, from
Cindy Bassett's office. And, you know, they have these bullet
points here.
And so the first bullet point directly affects, this is why
the people in the audience at the community meeting expresses
issues. Directly affecting residents question the impact that
Directly affecting residents question the impact that maximum of 50 patrons or guests would cause while going through the neighborhood.
maximum of 50 patrons or guests would call.
Again, I think, again, having a maximum of 50 will, like, help the situation.
This is a CMX two and a half property.
We don't want to create a nightclub atmosphere.
This will prevent it from being a nightclub, but it's a commercial property.
Two and a half is pretty strong commercial classification.
They're also concerned about alcohol consumption on site.
Again, not enforceable. We would agree to some type of community benefits agreement and the board wants to hold this vote.
You know, we can try to work through that issue because I know that's not an enforceable proviso, but we would agree to no alcohol consumption on the premises.