The news broke in the middle of last week that Marble Brewery had come to the tough decision to close the Heights taproom in December, making the announcement just two days before its 10th anniversary celebration.

It was one of those surprise posts that brought up more questions than answers, so luckily for us the ownership duo of Bert Boyce and Jarrett Babinscak were willing and able to sit down and sort it all out for us.

First and foremost, we wanted to straighten out how everything has worked since Boyce, Babinscak, and their silent partners bought the brewery at the end of 2024.

“It was technically an asset purchase, albeit a complicated one,” Boyce said. “And, not a normal one. A traditional asset purchase might essentially just amount to the IP and say, brewing equipment or something. So it was complicated. Ultimately, a separate group of ours (and) some other some other folks bought this property (downtown).

“We never bought the Heights property. I think that’s the key thing in today’s conversation is the Peters (brothers) still own the Heights property.”

The Peters brothers, Soren and Devin, were the prior owners of Marble. They sold the brewery but not all of the buildings or the land beneath them, essentially.

Boyce wanted to clear up one misconception about the previous owners that he saw pop up in the comments online. At no point since the brewery was sold did the rent at the Heights go up. So while it never changed, the cost was just too much for the current brewery owners to bear.

The way it worked before was the Peters set up a separate LLC that owned the property that was distinct from the brewery business. They were paying rent to themselves, for all intents and purposes. When the Boyce-Babinscak group took over, they then paid rent to the Peters’ LLC.

Ultimately, as the post on Facebook stated, the rent was just too high. Paying for it was starting to drain from the profits coming out of downtown and the Westside.

“I think we just wanted to kind of clarify our relation to the Peters and to the previous Marble entity,” Boyce said. “They made decisions in the past, and I think they’re doing everything they possibly can to make it work. And, we just couldn’t, the math didn’t math at the end of the day. There’s no hard feelings on our part. We get it and I think they get it, too. It is what it is.”

Babinscak explained that the Heights taproom just had some issues that could not be painted over.

“The economics of running one space as a local business versus a multi-outlet chain, who can spread that overhead (helps other businesses),” he said. “And, not having food, that’s the other killer. I’m trying to make it go one pint at a time in a space that expensive is just not a sustainable business model.”

Marble tried to increase the number of events on hand, but those did not click with the customers the way they have downtown.

“That’s what we’ve learned is we tried the music and entertainment thing, and invested really heavily in spending to try to drive traffic and none of it came alive,” Babinscak said.

The lounge space was also never really utilized, leaving it as a 2,500-square-foot empty space. Private events rarely materialized these days, and in fact had not really boomed there or anywhere like they did before the pandemic.

“That’s the kind of stuff that goes first when people start tightening the belts,” Babinscak said. “I mean, our rentals are OK, (but) they’re down considerably and we’re not charging for the room anymore. Just like, come in, have a bar tab minimum, prepay so that we can keep the space held for you, but it’s not like it was four or five years ago.”

Both Boyce and Babinscak said the timing could have been better when they put out the news that they were closing in December just days before the anniversary party was scheduled.

“We didn’t want them to have said, you could have told us (first) and you didn’t,” Babinscak said. “And, then they’re hearing about it from a third party or the internet or from a Reddit thread. We wanted them to hear it from us and be able to understand the why and how we got here.”

“And, once we made the decision and I informed the landlord, it was days before we told that staff and then the world,” Boyce added. “It’s important to not let that just fester out there. The risk of someone finding out the wrong way is just too high. They found out that morning, and by the time you found out it was a couple hours later, probably.”

All of the staff at the Heights will have the opportunity to take positions at the other two Marble locations. The harder part will be figuring out what to do with the secondary brewery that was nestled in the back of the taproom.

“We don’t really know,” Boyce said. “We don’t have immediate plans to open another taproom.”

“I guess we can say we’re unclear as to how that burning equipment will be used,” Babinscak added.

So, yes, there could be a drop-off in all of those wonderful one-off specialty brews that dot the beer boards at downtown and Westside. The Heights is more than just a second brewery location, however, something that Babinscak acknowledged.

“It’s a good neighborhood bar,” he said. “I think that’s the hardest part is seeing the impact that it’s having on the regulars, and the staff, and those relationships and the community building that happens over there. Because it’s a pretty tight community, and there’s a ton of regulars that are in there three or four days a week that live near that place. So they meet there every Friday and play poker with their friends. It’s a really cool community space, and having (brewer Greg) Dupy there and like the history of all the one-off beers coming out of there.”

In better news, there will likely be a big farewell bash for the Heights in December. Ownership and the staff are already kicking around some ideas. Expect more on that soon.

As for the rest of Marble, the business, and the properties, things are actually going well. There are no issues with Westside.

Some of the properties controlled by the original owners have been sold off downtown. Those buildings, that face Second Street, were previously used for storage and offices.

The separate LLC that owns the land beneath the brewery building and a couple of adjacent lots is up for sale, Babinscak confirmed, but that sale will come with a locked-in lease that will allow Marble to stay in business for many years.

In the end, it will mostly be business as usual going forward at the remaining Marble locations. The biggest thing is that no one should panic, that Marble is not going the way of Bosque or anything like that.

If anyone has any further questions about what is happening, send us a DM or an email to nmdarksidebrewcrew@gmail.com.

A big thanks to Bert and Jarrett for taking the meeting so quickly.

— Stoutmeister