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An Expanding Craft Brewer Eyes Bowery Redevelopment Area

Royal Docks Brewing Company in Stark County
Royal Docks Brewing Co., Canton, OH
Royal Docks Brewing Company in Stark County

Akron’s Bowery redevelopment project may have its first tenant. A fast growing Stark County craft brewer wants to open a location in the renovation district.

Bowery redevelopment area in downtown Akron
Credit TIM RUDELL / WKSU
/
WKSU
Bowery redevelopment area in downtown Akron

The national Brewers Associationsays Royal Docks Breweryin Jackson Township was the fifth fastest growing craft brewer in the country last year.  Owner John Bikis says expanding to Akron is a logical step; and the Bowery block, with Lock 4 behind it, is a good spot for a pub. “We will be on two floors.  We’ll have a speakeasy entrance from the street and access to a balcony and a patio in the back.”

Bikis says being “first-in” with the development doesn’t bother him. “The city, as you can see from some of the construction there, is really getting behind the project, and we’re willing to give it try.”

He says the site research is done and reaching a lease deal is next up. 

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Tim Rudell
Tim Rudell has worked in broadcasting and news since his student days at Kent State in the late 1960s and early 1970s (when he earned extra money as a stringer for UPI). He began full time in radio news in 1972 in his home town of Canton, OH.