Proposed West End Farm Distillery and Restaurant site plan.
Logan Inn owner Frank Cretella and his Jersey City development company Landmark Hospitality on Monday detailed the latest proposal for transforming the historic West End Farm at 2586 River Road in New Hope into a distillery with a tasting room and casual restaurant.
The developers have held three meetings with the local Phillips Mill community, and the plan has been significantly trimmed from its original vision. Gone is a proposed bed and breakfast, along with 60 parking spaces and an additional driveway, and water usage and traffic patterns appear to have been extensively analyzed.
West End Farm.
“It is our intent to restore the barns, [and] create a landscape buffer surrounding our parking lot and along the front road,” reads the proposal. “All residents and visitors to the Phillips Mill Inn will continue to use the existing entrance, improved with a wider entrance, better parking configuration and improvements in the roadway and landscaping and not be inconvenienced by any traffic.”
And what does Cretella plan on distilling at the new location?
“We will start with vodka and gin, but we want to be known for bourbon and rye, and that requires multi-year barrel time,” he said.
Thistle Finch Distilleries in Lancaster is an example of the look Cretella is going for.
West End Farm, technically located in Solebury Township, has boarded horses, provided riding lessons, and housed mules used in towing barges along New Hope’s historic section of Delaware Canal, along with horses used in local tourist carriage rides.
“A distillery is the new modern agriculture; we’ll be using local products from Bucks County farmers to produce our distilled liquors,” said Landmark in their proposal. “Items such as wheat, corn, apples, blueberries, strawberries will all be used in the process. Left over grain will be put to good use and sent to the local farmers as feed for their livestock.”
Next steps in the process?
Existing and proposed site maps.
“We are preparing our application for a use variance, but don’t have an appearance date yet,” said Cretella. “We really took our time and tried to address every concern. We want to be good neighbors.”
Cretella and his Jersey City development company Landmark Hospitality are moving forward with a dramatic overhaul of the landmark Logan Inn that it purchased in 2015. Cretella is also a partner in the planned new Nurture Spa location at 31 W. Ferry St. in New Hope.
Glennfiddich Distillery is another source of inspiration.
I love the idea….
Charlie – quick question.
Would it be possible to have a section with all the new proposals and their status with updates…Such as Ferry Market, Playhouse Inn, Logan, Odette’s, Salt House, Feed Store…..I’m sure there is more. It would be nice if there was an index of projects and where they stood.
It seems like lots of money is on the sidelines waiting to be invested into downtown. I think it would be nice to know the status of some of these so we can stay up to date…clearly lots of things done behind closed doors.
Just a thought…Cheers & thanks for the work you do!
Thanks, Tom, good idea. Maybe an occasional wrap-up piece about major projects — a kind of scorecard.
Thanks Charlie….that would be very helpful.
Most people have bits and piece of information, but it would be wonderful if there was something that updated readers where things are in the process.
It seems like you have the early inside scoop on many of these projects…hoping that a followup wouldn’t be too time consuming.
Happy Halloween!
Thanks, you too!