NJ losing another longtime craft brewery, this time over landlord fight

🍺 Longtime NJ brewery says it is being forced out

🍺 Landlord failed to agree to lease extension, owner says

🍺 After nearly 10 years, brewery will close doors by March

CHERRY HILL — Another veteran of the New Jersey craft brewing scene, Forgotten Boardwalk Brewing, announced it will be closing after a lease struggle.

In a social media message sent out Friday called “Farewell Folks,” brewery owner Jamie Queli said the brewery had “vigorously tried to sign a lease extension with our landlord to no avail as our next door neighbor has leased out the space from underneath us.”

The brewery launched its operations in October 2014, in the Cherry Hill site on Olney Avenue once occupied by Flying Fish Brewery.

In a sad, full-circle coincidence, Flying Fish Brewery, now of Somerdale, last month announced it was filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

“We are extremely disappointed and quite frankly, appalled at the actions of both companies and their adamant refusals to negotiate with us,” Queli continued in her message on Friday.

Forgotten Boardwalk Brewing would be keeping their regular business hours, including the tasting room, through until Feb. 29.

The team also left the door open for some possible continuation of business.

“While this chapter is coming to an end, we hope that Forgotten Boardwalk will continue, possibly in another form, in the future. In the meantime, we are welcoming any and all business opportunities for Forgotten Boardwalk.”

Responses from customers and fellow breweries quickly racked up on Facebook and Instagram, with disappointment in how the situation had unfolded.

According to Google Maps, the neighboring company at the same Cherry Hill warehouse is a private, not-for-profit corporation, Bestwork Industries for the Blind, Inc.

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