Old Young’s Distillery has announced plans to build a venue in the Swan Valley, estimated to cost about $30 million, and launched a crowdfunding campaign to fund the project.
Old Young’s Distillery has announced plans to build a hospitality and accommodation venue in the Swan Valley, estimated to cost about $30 million, and launched a crowdfunding campaign to fund the project.
The development, dubbed the Cathedral of Gin, would be constructed on a 45,000 square-metre property the distillery owns, located less than five kilometres from its current Henley Brook venue.
Designed by national architecture firm Cumulus Studio, the venue is expected to include dining and tasting rooms, immersive gin experiences, event spaces, a “secret bar” and 10 accommodation suites.
The property includes 400 metres of river views, and is slated to have capacity to welcome 500 visitors each day once open.
Old Young’s Distillery has launched a campaign via crowdfunding platform Birchal to fund the Cathedral of Gin project, with the expressions of interest phase open until November 18.
Old Young’s Distillery founder and chief executive James Young told Business News construction of the development would commence within the next 12 months and be completed in 2027.
“Our next steps are to complete design development and get planning approval, which we envisage to take six to nine months,” Mr Young said.
“We’ve done a lot of work already to ensure that progresses smoothly. Assuming no hurdles there, we should be able to break ground within 12 months and we expect a construction program of under 24 months, so the current timeline has us opening before the end of 2027.
“We’re at the mercy of the market, and we know it’s a tough time to raise capital, but we can raise up to $5 million.
“The budget for the overall project is around $30 million, so this will be a part of the funding mix. We’ll be sourcing traditional finance and potentially create a syndicate down the track to manage the build.”
Mr Young likened the Cathedral of Gin design to South Australia’s d’Arenberg Cube, which boosted tourism in the town of McLaren Vale by 140 per cent in the 12 months after it opened in December 2017.
“We sought inspiration from all over the world but understand that many people will compare our Cathedral of Gin with Chester Osborn’s iconic d’Arenberg Cube,” Mr Young said.
“This structure was at first deemed ‘outlandish’ and ‘ridiculous’ but has since achieved worldwide acclaim.
“We hope to mirror its success, which saw the number of day trippers to McLaren Vale rise from 130,000 in 2015 to 351,000 in a year.
“The d’Arenberg winery itself ballooned from 50,000 visitors per year before the Cube opened to a whopping 250,000 people per year after – that’s a 500 per cent increase.
“We’re confident our new home will see similar numbers and proudly put the Swan Valley on every gin-lover’s itinerary.”
Cumulus Studio director and principal architect Peter Walker, who is based in Hobart, said the Cathedral of Gin venue would incorporate a working distillery and visitor spaces that offered “a front-row seat to the fascinating process of distilling Old Young’s world-class gin”.
“The visitor experience of the building is curated around a sequence of curated moments from the moment of entry through to the point of departure, including exceptional food and beverage, tours, and accommodation,” Mr Walker said.
Mr Young praised Cumulus Studio’s design and said the venue would attract international visitors.
“We’ve designed Old Young’s new distillery to be an architectural triumph that inspires gin lovers to make pilgrimages from around the world,” he said.
“We went out to some of the world’s best architects, from Hamburg to Hobart and the design from Cumulus just took our breath away.”
Mr Young told Business News that if the raise target for the crowdfunding campaign had not been reached by the end of the EOI phase, it would open to the public for further investments and close on November 28.
A crowdfunding raise launched by Old Young’s in March last year generated $2.7 million in less than a day and surpassed the target of $2 million in the first seven hours.
This broke the record for the biggest equity crowdfunding raise in WA’s history, the biggest raise in Australia for the financial year 2022-23, and the biggest alcohol raise in Australia’s history.
Old Young’s Distillery won Craft Producer of the Year and Brand Innovator of the Year at the The Icons of Gin Awards 2023.
