Grand Rapids' east side may soon be welcoming a new place to enjoy locally made craft spirits!

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Eastern Kille Distillery is looking to a open a tasting room on Wealthy Street.

The distillery first opened at 700 Ottawa Ave NW back in 2016 as "Gray Skies Distillery". After a trademark dispute with Skyy Vodka the GR distillery renamed itself "Eastern Kille" ("Kille" is middle-dutch for “riverbed” or “waterway”), which is in reference to their location off the eastern bank of the Grand River.

And now Eastern Kille is planning to open a new location on Wealthy Street - well, if all goes as planned!

According to MiBiz, the award-winning distillery is seeking to open a new tasting room at 634 Wealthy St. SE. The other half of the space is occupied by Rowster Coffee Inc.

The Grand Rapids Planning Commission will consider the site plan for a cocktail bar and retail section at the Wealthy St. location at a meeting February 10.

The new space would accommodate 36 to 48 people and have a "different vibe" than the distillery's original location; Eastern Kille co-owner Brandon Voorhees tells MiBiz:

Some of my favorite businesses reside (on Wealthy Street). We’ve always had an eye on that area. We share similar clients with the restaurants, businesses and shops there, so it felt like a natural fit for us as we determine the next steps for Eastern Kille and how we want to grow and how to best serve our clientele.

As we shared this past summer, Eastern Kille's Ottawa Ave. location was purchased by Spectrum Health. The health system, which paid $3.5 million for the property, is planning to build a new eight-story office tower in the area.

Eastern Kille, Facebook
Ottawa Ave. location - Eastern Kille, Facebook
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MiBiz reports that Eastern Kille will continue operating on Ottawa Ave. neighborhood through the end of the year. After that the plan is to move to 16 acres recently purchased near Rockford, and eventually open an outdoor cocktail garden. But that doesn't mean Eastern Kille won't still have a presence in the North Monroe neighborhood. Voorhees tells MiBiz they are looking into opening a tasting room near the original location:

We love this neighborhood so much. It was the right thing we believe for the city and growth of Eastern Kille to go through with that (sale) to Spectrum, but at the same time we still want to have a presence here in the Monroe North corridor.

Keep up with Eastern Kille's future plans on Facebook and Instagram.

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