The Olympia Brewery closed in 2003. Since then, there has been interest in the brewery buildings, buyers, and many stops and starts. There are economic, political, environmental, and logistical challenges to redeveloping the grounds and buildings of the shuttered brewery, including the fact that most of the brewery parcels are privately owned.

In 2025, the City of Tumwater is now entering a new phase aimed at sparking redevelopment.  Work has started on what’s called a “Planned Action Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).” This upfront analysis of potential environmental impacts of development allows for streamlined review of subsequent development proposals. While this might sound like “just more planning,” it’s an important step to making it easier for developers to get started on projects that will transform the old brewery sites.

Other actions the City of Tumwater has taken lay the groundwork for future development opportunities:

• As a result of the city's advocacy, the long-obsolete covenant that existed on the site prohibiting the production of alcohol on the site was removed.
• Work on the Tumwater Valley Trail has moved forward.
• In partnership with LOTT, the City has developed a master plan for development on its property at the former brewery site. LOTT will emphasize riparian restoration and public access/education as an important environmental component of future site development.
• The city secured an EPA grant to conduct brownfield studies of the Knoll and the Warehouse (Valley) properties. The studies are currently underway.
• The City of Tumwater conducted a community visioning process in 2011.  Through this visioning process, the community expressed a desire for employment opportunities and ways to grow businesses, public spaces like recreation opportunities and public plazas, a sense of place, connectivity throughout the area, and to honor both the environment and history.
• The visioning process resulted in the Brewery District Plan, which was adopted in 2014.   Neighborhoods around the brewery buildings were rezoned to better align with the community’s vision, and there have been improvements in the area as a result.  This plan provides the foundation for the Planned Action EIS work that is happening now.

A Planned Action EIS refers to a type of Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) prepared under Washington’s State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA).

An EIS is a detailed study that federal agencies must prepare for major actions that may significantly affect the environment. A Planned Action EIS is a specific kind of EIS that is done in advance, covering a whole set of anticipated projects or actions rather than requiring a new EIS for every individual project.

It evaluates the environmental impacts of a broader plan or policy (like a redevelopment district, transportation corridor, or long-term development plan). Later, when individual projects within that plan are proposed, they may not need a full EIS again—they can rely on the Planned Action EIS as long as their impacts are consistent with what was already analyzed.

Why It’s Used

• To streamline environmental review for multiple projects in the same area.
• To increase predictability for developers and agencies.
• To ensure cumulative impacts are studied up front rather than piecemeal.

Why It Will Be Useful for Tumwater

For Tumwater, and the brewery sites in particular, going through the Planned Action EIS process will provide:

• Clarity on what’s feasible in the floodplain and near wetlands.
• Certainty about traffic, utilities, and required mitigations.
• Speed for compliant projects, lowering risk and cost.

Why This Planning Work is Different

The City’s previous planning work, such as the Brewery District Plan, provides an important foundation for the Planned Action EIS.  However, the Planned Action EIS takes this work further and is an important step toward redevelopment because it:

• Creates a permitting fast lane for consistent projects.
• Studies multiple options side-by-side, with clear tradeoffs.
• Sets mitigation requirements tied to real impacts.
• Improves coordination with agencies such as the Washington State Department of Ecology, the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT), LOTT Clean Water Alliance and many more.

Driving past the old brewery buildings, it may see like little has changed since the brewery closed except for deterioration.  However, a lot has been happening behind the scenes. 

• There was an extensive community visioning process in 2011 and the Brewery District Plan was adopted in 2014. 
• Neighborhoods around the brewery buildings have been rezoned to better align with the community’s vision and there have been improvements in the area as a result.  
• New multifamily housing on North St. near Cleveland Ave. is an example of how rezoning allowed new development to happen.
• The Craft District is another example of the City of Tumwater’s efforts to spur development. This thriving hub of food, art, and activity is energizing the Brewery District, and there is more to come.  
• The City worked to have the covenant prohibiting the production of alcohol on the old brewery site removed, making more kinds of investment possible.
• The City secured grant funds to conduct environmental investigation of the brewery sites, and now, in 2025, work on a planned action environmental impact statement (EIS) is underway.

Brewery Buildings: A Long Story of Stops and Starts

As for the brewery buildings and grounds themselves, there has been interest, buyers, and many stops and starts ever since the brewery closed. Right after closing the brewery, Miller sold the brewery property to All American Bottled Water Corp., a startup company that planned to bottle water on the property. However, by 2006, the company was forced into involuntary bankruptcy by creditors trying to recover their money. 

There were other buyers who came and went, and by 2011, it was clear to the City of Tumwater that progress on the brewery sites would require more direct involvement. That’s when the City embarked on the community visioning process that resulted in the Brewery District Plan in 2014. However, the brewery sites continued to undergo purchases and sales, and by 2016, the brewery sites were divided by 30 parcels owned by nine groups, including private developers, South Sound Bank, LOTT Clean Water Alliance, and the City of Tumwater.

In 2019, vandalism caused about 586 gallons of oil tainted with polychlorinated biphenyls to spill into storm drains, the Deschutes River, and Capitol Lake. The spill cost Tumwater Development LLC, which owns most of the brewery site parcels, over $2 million in penalties. As a result of the spill and cost, redevelopment of brewery sites was further stalled.

Today, there are economic, political, environmental, and logistical challenges to redeveloping the grounds and buildings of the shuttered brewery, including the fact that most of the brewery parcels are privately owned. That’s why the City is taking an important step toward spurring redevelopment by working on a Planned Action EIS. This upfront analysis of potential environmental impacts of development allows for streamlined review of subsequent development proposals. While this might sound like “just more planning,” it’s an important step to making it easier for developers to get started on projects that will transform the old brewery sites.

View a timeline of brewery history. 

A brownfield is land that was previously used for industrial or commercial purposes but is now vacant or underused because there’s a possibility it may be contaminated by past activities. There are some 400,000 brownfields in the U.S. and over 14,000 brownfields in Washington state alone. Brownfields are often good locations for redevelopment once they’ve been properly assessed and cleaned up.

The former Olympia Brewery properties in Tumwater are considered brownfields because they were industrial sites for more than a century that were used for brewing, packaging, and warehousing. The properties are not currently in active use, and future redevelopment will require environmental cleanup and planning to ensure the land and nearby river are safe. The City of Tumwater secured grant funding to investigate possible contamination from fuels, oils, and other chemicals used in past operations. The work is nearing completion, and a report will be available soon.

Most of the brewery properties are privately owned. There are many legal, constitutional, procedural, and political barriers a city in Washington State faces if it wants to take (condemn) private property.

For example, under both the Washington Constitution and the U.S. Constitution, the government may only take private property for a public purpose and must pay “just compensation," also referred to as fair market value.  Determining just compensation for the property comes with additional time and risk.  Beyond law, practical and political factors can make property takeover difficult or unattractive. 

Rather than first going through a lengthy, risky process that could cost Tumwater taxpayers millions of dollars, the City of Tumwater is working on ways to spur redevelopment through private investment.  Redevelopment could involve repurposing old brewery buildings or tearing buildings down and constructing new buildings.

The Olympia Brewery closed because the mid-sized, regional beer model couldn’t survive national consolidation, high operating costs, and intense competition from massive breweries.

The Olympia Brewery grew rapidly through the 1970s, buying other struggling beer companies like Hamm’s and Lone Star to compete with national giants such as Budweiser and Miller. For a short time, this made Olympia the sixth largest brewery in the U.S., but it was still much smaller than the major national brands.

Even at its peak, Olympia could only produce a maximum of nine million barrels a year, compared to Budweiser’s 36 million. The new plants Olympia purchased needed major repairs and were expensive to operate, so profits were small even though the company wasn’t losing money.

By the 1980s, the beer industry had consolidated—small and mid-sized regional breweries were disappearing, leaving only big national brands and tiny craft brewers. Olympia became one of the last mid-sized independent brewers in America, a business model that no longer fit the changing market.

In 1983, the Schmidt family sold the company to G. Heileman Brewing, and through later mergers, Pabst and Miller Brewing took over the brand. Eventually, Miller closed the Tumwater brewery in 2003, ending more than a century of local brewing.

To learn more about the history of the brewery, view History Talks! It's the Water: A Brief History of the Olympia Brewing Company courtesy of the City of Lacey.

Miller Brewing Co. closed the Olympia Brewery in 2003. In a Thurston County Superior Court decree filed in early 2009, the cities of Olympia, Lacey, and Tumwater obtained the brewery-area water rights for municipal supply. Washington’s Dept. of Ecology then approved transfer and changes to those rights in September 2009. 

The water rights are shared municipal rights. A 2023 three-city agreement stated each city owned an undivided one-third share of the Brewery Wellfield water rights/assets (and liabilities). In 2025, Tumwater acquired Lacey’s one-third share, so Tumwater now owns two-thirds of the water rights and Olympia owns one-third. The City of Tumwater is moving forward to install wells with the goal of beginning production and treatment by 2028.  The City of Tumwater will renew conversations with the City of Olympia early next year on the operation and management of the wellfield.

There is no deed ban on making alcohol anymore. As a result of the City of Tumwater’s advocacy, the covenant that once barred alcohol production was lifted in 2013, so brewing and distilling is not prohibited on the sites today. 

Because the old private industrial water right no longer exists, any new brewery at the site would need to use municipal water like other businesses and meet all utility, permitting, and environmental requirements.