Big Ditch Brewing Drops Plans For Hub in Cheektowaga, New York

With its focus on this fall’s opening of a Lockport location and the continued growth of its downtown Buffalo production center and separate flagship taproom/restaurant, Big Ditch Brewing Co. has dropped plans to build a Cheektowaga production hub, tap room, banquet center, and operations center.

Instead, Iskalo Development Co.,  property owner and developer of the proposed $32.3 million center at 6700 Transit Road has put the nine-acre, vacant site on the market.
Big Ditch and Iskalo, in March 2020, announced plans for the 105,000-square-foot complex that would have housed a production center, banquet hall, taproom, restaurant, and offices. The project gained all the necessary Town of Cheektowaga approvals and was cleared for tax breaks from the Erie County Industrial Development Agency.
Instead, Covid and the economic slowdown that came as a result of the pandemic delayed the project.

“And, it became a victim of the passage of time,” said David Chiazza, Iskalo executive vice president.

READ MORE: Cheektowaga Historical Association Buys Long-Sought After Building

Big Ditch pivoted by opening a production center in a vacant, 67,000-square-foot building at 101 Oak Street in downtown Buffalo. The. Oak Street building more than doubles the Big Ditch craft beer output from the 15,000 annual barrels produced at its flagship site at 55 E. Huron Streets, also in downtown Buffalo.

Additionally, Big Ditch is slated to open a second tap room/craft brewery in the former Lockport Post Office, 1 East Avenue, this fall.

Chiazza said the Transit Road site, located just north of the New York State Thruway exit, is being marketed as either a build-to-suit or outright sale location. No price tag has been set.

“Let’s see what the market brings,” Chiazza said.