Night Shift Brewing Cancels $12M Expansion Plan

EVERETT, MA — Plans to expand Night Shift Brewing into Philadelphia have fallen through, the brewery announced Wednesday. The founders of the Everett-based brewery said they have reached an agreement with their landlord to terminate their lease, citing the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

"It wasn't meant to be. The COVID-19 pandemic shook our business to the core, and obviously almost everything outside of it," founders Rob Burns, Mike O'Mara and Michael Oxton said in a statement.

It's an abrupt end for the $12 million project, which was announced nine months ago and would have resulted in a 130,000-square-foot brewery and taproom in Philadelphia. Construction drawings for Phase 1 of the project were finalized in February, and the company had received financing approval from its bank, bringing its "dream project" closer to reality.

After the crisis hit, moving forward with the project would have meant the "potential collapse" of Night Shift Brewery, the founders wrote. They plan to focus on core operations during this time and said they hope to revisit the Philadelphia expansion in the future.