During the March 4 Hellertown Council meeting a conditional use hearing was held with Solicitor Michael Corriere overseeing the proceedings. Lost Tavern Brewing is currently located at 782 Main St. in Hellertown and is looking to expand its operation through the purchase of a 7063 square -foot warehouse located at 720 Main St., behind Dunkin’ Donuts. The owners of Neighbors Lawn and Garden Center in Hellertown have owned it for years and used the building for storage.

According to the Lost Tavern owners, their intention is to use the facility for beer production and storage, including offering tours with a tasting room and the sale of brand merchandise. Before the sale is completed in April, Hellertown needs to give conditional use approval. Once the conditional use is approved, then a site plan would have to go to the planning commission for approval.

The building is located in a mixed-use district; however, zoning doesn’t specifically allowa “brewing” facility in that district which requires the borough to issue a conditional use approval before Lost Tavern can proceed.

There are currently several businesses in the area, including Dunkin’ Donuts, a Sunoco gas station, BB&T bank, Lehigh Valley Health Network Family Medicine and Rehab Services.

During the meeting, Corriere asked Hellertown’s Code Enforcement Officer Chris Russo and Borough Engineer Bryan Smith if the use of the facility will detract from the neighboring properties, and they both replied “no.” Smith explained that the current use is a warehouse and “if anything, this should actually probably make it better.” Questions were raised about the 14 parking spaces on the site, and it was deemed by the Borough Planning Commission that parking will be sufficient for the intended use.

Co-cwners of Lost Tavern Brewing, Robert Grim, Ken Rampolla and Anthony Gangi were in attendance. According to Grim, it will be a slightly larger operation in the new building, but “there is nothing that’s going to happen in this building that’s not happening less than 100 yards away” (referring to their existing 782 Main St. location). He continued, “We’re a pretty small operation right now, so it’s not like Anheuser Busch is moving into the neighborhood.” Also on hand was Ricky Gower from the Hellertown Lower Saucon Chamber of Commerce. Gower spoke highly of Lost Tavern ,saying, “they’ve been a tremendous community partner…anything this team puts their heart and soul towards certainly comes out top notch and first class and we have full confidence in the project.”

At the conclusion of the hearing, borough council gave unanimous approval to Lost Tavern’s conditional use.