Aviator Brewing plans major expansion in downtown Fuquay-Varina

The 109,000-square-foot tobcacco warehouse will be torn down, and a new complex will be built that includes an expanded brewery, a distillery and new bars.

"I would like to thank town officials for believing in the long-term success we have planned," said Mark Doble, CEO of Aviator Brewing. "We started our business in an airplane hangar nearly ten years ago and now we have grown to become one of the top craft breweries in the country."

Aviator currently operates in a 22,000-square-foot warehouse at 209 Technology Park Lane in Fuquay.

Within a block radius of the new brewery to be built on North Street, the company also operates the Aviator Tap House, Aviator Smoke House, Aviator Bottle Shop and, coming soon, a brick-oven pizza shop. The bottle shop will move into a vacant building next door to its current location, and its space will become home to the new pizza shop.

The expansion, planned to be complete by Spring 2019, will bring 75 new jobs to the community.

Aviator Brewing Company, founded in 2008 by Doble, is headquartered in Fuquay-Varina and has been brewing since 2008. Today the company employs 125 employees and does nearly $4 million in sales. Aviator also exports to South Korea, Taiwan, Brazil, Germany and several other countries.

The expansion will be supported, in part, by incentive funding approved by the Fuquay-Varina Board of Commissioners during a Monday meeting. Aviator Brewing is eligible to receive up to $203,250 of economic development funding assistance. Town funds will be paid to the company after all of the project’s capital expenditures have been completed.