It’s been over two years since a referendum approved the creation of a campus microbrewery and the project is slowly but surely moving along.
Like all major capital projects in UBC, the microbrewery must go through three stages of approval from the UBC executive, three stages of approval from the Board of Governors and then a final post-opening evaluation stage.
The project is currently going through the second executive approval stage, where topics such as financial requirements, funding sources, initial cost estimates, potential risks and the planned site are being discussed.
According to AMS President Aaron Bailey, the development of the microbrewery has been moving along as expected without any delays, although it is something that will take a while to develop.
“To someone who’s looking at this project full stop from the outside, it may seem like it’s moving slow. But if you actually look at the grand scheme of university capital projects —especially one that’s as unique as this and new to this environment — we’re actually pretty much on schedule,” said Bailey. “I didn’t expect this brewery to be built during my time at UBC and I made that very clear when we ran the referendum question.”
The microbrewery will likely be paid for through a loan from the UBC treasury, which the AMS will repay by collecting the student fees approved in the 2014 microbrewery referendum. Before the AMS can start collecting these fees, they first need to have a financial agreement with the university.
This financial agreement will most likely come after the third stage of executive approval. Bailey also added that a lot of consultation needs to happen as well.
“It is something that surrounds the production of alcohol, which is a cultural topic that means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. So there’s a lot of consultation that we have to do. It’s on south campus, which is near a community [that] we have to make sure is okay and invested in the project.”
Two of the biggest partners that the AMS has been working with are the Faculty of Land and Food Systems and the UBC Farm, who are hosting the microbrewery in a new comprehensive space that can be used for research and academics. The AMS has also been in talks with the Turning Point Brewery company, but no partnership has been established.
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