Henderson Distilling LLC will open distillery in Henderson

HENDERSON, Ky. − For the first time in more than a century, by late summer of 2024 a commercial distillery could be operating in Henderson.

Henderson Distilling Co. LLC, which was incorporated last fall by Hendersonian Andrew Powell on behalf of himself and a group of investors, on Thursday morning announced plans for a $5 million craft distillery on a portion of the current site of Henderson Municipal Power & Light, including buildings fronting both North Main Street and Water Street.

Henderson Distilling will acquire about three acres from the City of Henderson in January 2024 after HMP&L relocates to a new headquarters and operations center it is building on Barret Drive. It will employ 12 full-time workers when it reaches full production.

Local business:United Companies, mainstay of Evansville business community, moves to third-generation CEO

“I’d say it’s the largest investment in downtown in recent history,” Missy Vanderpool, executive director of Henderson Economic Development, said of the Henderson Distilling project.

The distillery — whose name hasn’t yet been selected — will operate in a two-story brick building on Water Street that was built more than a century ago as the bottling works for the former Henderson Brewing Co. brewhouse next door on the corner of Fifth and Water streets. A HMP&L building on North Main Street beside the railroad overpass will house as the welcome center, a small theater, a tasting room and cocktail bar.

The announcement came following approval for $200,000 in Kentucky Business Investment incentives from the Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority (KEDFA) on Thursday.

With the KEDFA state incentives approved, Powell said Henderson Distilling within a month will place an order with distillation equipment producer StillDragon for key equipment: a 30-foot-tall copper-lined dual column still, a 100-gallon pot still that will serve as a “doubler” for double-distilling spirits, and four 3,000-gallon stainless steel fermenting tanks.

Powell said plans call for initial production of 600 barrels of spirits per year that could be ramped up later to 900 barrels per year. The distillery’s capacity, if run 24/7, will be 1,500 barrels per year.

The distiller will be his wife, Meredith Powell, who has a technical background and will receive specialized training through Louisville’s acclaimed Moonshine University as well as on-the-job training at a Kentucky distillery that uses the same equipment that Henderson Distilling’s plant will operate.

“I’m going to have a lot of training before we start production,” she said.

Additionally, Henderson Distilling has been working with spirits industry startup consultants.

Local business:Evansville-based Old National Bank unveils division targeting high net-worth customers

Initially, Henderson Distilling will put its own vodka and gin on its shelves, because those can be produced and bottled without aging. That will be supplemented with bourbon sourced from other distilleries.

But Powell said the plan is to produce and age Henderson Distilling’s own whiskey. He anticipates that the first rye whiskey will be available for sale in 2026, after aging for two years in charred oak barrels; bourbon won’t be released until at least 2028, after it has aged for four years.

Aging in charred oak barrels is what gives rye and bourbon all of its amber color and most of its flavor. Henderson Distilling’s whiskies will be released when it “tastes the way we want it to taste,” he said.

A small number of barrels will be aged on-site for aesthetic purposes, but most barrels will be aged at another location out in the county, according to Powell.

As with many other Kentucky distilleries, the plan is to offer public tours and product tastings, making the distilleries a tourist destination. He said Henderson Distilling intends to become part of the Kentucky Bourbon Trail’s Craft Tour of smaller distilleries, which is heavily promoted by the Kentucky Distillers’ Association (KDA), an industry group.

“We’ll set up the whole operation so visitors can see every aspect of the operation,” including the still house on Water Street, Powell said.

The new distillery will be the first in Henderson since Kentucky Peerless was forced to suspend production because of grain restrictions during World War I. It permanently closed and was dismantled (though former Henderson resident Corky Taylor and his son, Carson, opened a new and acclaimed Peerless distillery in downtown Louisville several years ago_.

Since the principal buildings on the Henderson Distilling site are vintage — the future welcome center on Main Street is 65 years old or older and the planned still house on Water Street is at least 110 years old — he said Henderson Distilling will aim for a retro-industrial aesthetic.

“We want people, when they come to our place, to think that they’re stepping back in time to another world,” Powell said.

The one-story building at 405 N. Main St. was built for a former car dealership and dates to at least the mid-1950s.

The bigger Water Street building, besides once operating as a brewery bottling works starting around 1910 until Prohibition shut down Henderson Brewing, operated years later as a concrete block factory and, in recent decades, as a warehouse and home to the HMP&L distribution and transmission operations.

While Powell envisions a retro chic, he said the distillery operations will feature “cutting-edge technology and energy efficiency.”

The Water Street building sits on a 50-by-100-foot footprint and “is built like a tank,” Powell said. “It should be perfect for our needs. It’s wide open.” And there’s the prospect for a rooftop cocktail area overlooking the Ohio River where visitors could enjoy what Vanderpool declared “the best sunsets in town” as well as after-hour events.

“I think a big part of this is breathing new life not only into downtown, but these old buildings,” he said. “It’s a new era for that block” between Water and Main streets north of the CSX railroad overpass.

“One thing I like is the expansion of our downtown. A lot of times we think the railroad tracks” mark the northern boundary of the central business district, Powell said.

“I don’t think anyone dreamed as big as this,” Vanderpool said. “I just think this could be a catalyst for the next thing to come to downtown. If we want a boutique hotel” — which for years has been a goal for those envisioning the future of downtown Henderson — “it takes projects like this” to bring in additional visitors.

Certainly bourbon distilleries bring in visitors. The KDA reported that visitors took more than 1.5 million Bourbon Trail tours in 2021 — a near-record despite reduced tour sizes, limited hours and closures due to COVID and staffing issues as well as several destinations being closed or at limited capacity because of major expansion projects. Figures for 2022 haven’t been released yet but will likely break the attendance record.

The KDA said Bourbon Trail attendance grew 315% from 2009 through 2019, with more than 70% of visitors coming from outside Kentucky. It said research shows bourbon tourists trend younger, spend between $400 and $1,200 on their trip, travel in large groups and stay longer than the average visitor to Kentucky.

Nearly half have household incomes over $100,000, compared to approximately $60,000 for the average Kentucky tourist.

“A lot of people from all over the world have been to (visit distilleries) in Louisville, have been to Bardstown,” Vanderpool said. We’re going to build an attraction that will draw people from all over the world.”

“I think it’s a game-changer for our downtown,” she said.

Vanderpool lauded the role of City Manager Buzzy Newman assisting with this project including securing the soon-to-be-surplus HMP&L property at an affordable price for Henderson Distilling — $500,000 for about three acres, which doesn’t include the current HMP&L administration building at Fifth and Water streets.

“We often talk about ‘Economic development is a team sport’ and ‘Collaboration is our secret sauce,’” Vanderpool said. “Seventy-five percent of our secret sauce is Buzzy Newman and what he pours into our community. He really came through when we needed it.”

Additionally, Henderson Fiscal Court will provide $300,000 to apply toward the purchase price of the property.

Local officials hailed Thursday’s announcement.

“Bourbon tourism is booming, and getting Henderson on the Bourbon Trail will introduce our county to a whole new segment of visitors,” Henderson County Judge/Executive Brad Schneider. “We’re also very proud of the local ownership group for making this terrific investment in our community. Great things are happening in Henderson County! Cheers!”

“A new distillery in our downtown will generate tens of thousands of new and unique visitors to our city on an annual basis,” Henderson Mayor Brad Staton said. “It will add jobs and additional tax revenues. And it could quite possibly be the last domino to fall when we're talking about adding new hotels and other fantastic tourism-related ventures. It literally puts us on the map--the Bourbon Trail Map — and for that reason, I couldn't be more excited to support such an interesting and exciting project.”

“Visitors travel from all around the world to experience America’s native spirit in its homeplace — Kentucky,” Henderson Tourist Commission Executive Director, Abby Dixon said. “To offer a bourbon experience to visitors right here in Henderson is a catalyst for growth of our local tourism industry, and we’re eager to begin telling the story of Henderson-made bourbon to our guests.”

“Incredibly exciting,” is how Eric Gregory, a Henderson native and president of the Kentucky Distillers’ Association, described the news. “I couldn’t be more thrilled. It warms my heart that my hometown is getting a distillery. Henderson has got a lot of roots in brewing and distilling, (and it’s) especially (appropriate) to have it downtown, with the riverfront and all the visitors. Couldn’t ask for anything better. A home run.”

The Henderson Distilling announcement is the latest in a long line of distillery startups and expansions as bourbon and rye have enjoyed a years-long boom.

In Kentucky alone, the KDA says the distilling industry is in the middle of a $5.2 billion, 10-year building boom with $3.3 billion of announced investments coming across the next four years, including by distilling giants such as Jim Beam and Heaven Hill.

Bourbon production has skyrocketed more than 435% since the turn of the century. Kentucky now boasts more than 10.3 million barrels of bourbon aging in warehouses across the Bluegrass, the most in history, and Kentucky distillers filled more than 2.4 million barrels in 2020 alone.

But Powell says he isn’t worried that Henderson Distilling will be late to the game. He points to the vodka boom, when clear spirits overtook bourbon starting in the 1960s and experienced “35 years of just absolute control” of the market.

“We think (bourbon is) still on the uphill slope for the next 25 years as far as growth goes,” he said.

“We’re not competing with Heaven Hill or Suntory or Sazerac,” Powell said, referring to some of the industry’s giants. “We’re not getting into this to compete with anybody. We’re in it to make the best whiskey we can and shine on our hometown.”

“Bourbon is an experience,” he said. “Bourbon tells a story. And we’re going to tell our story and Henderson’s story.”