Planned winery dies on the vine

Venue would have been firm’s third in Denver

Plans to add another winery to RiNo have been canceled.

First Batch Hospitality, the parent company of wineries in Brooklyn and Washington, D.C., no longer plans to add a third location in Denver, according to Ashleigh Dawson, the company’s director of marketing.

The location, which First Batch announced on social media in January 2020, was slated to open in Lot Twenty Eight, the building at 2763 Blake St. that has been renovated by Denver-based Formativ.

First Batch’s Brooklyn Winery and District Winery venues feature a wine bar and event space, and offer tours. Early last year, before the coronavirus pandemic set in, the company was already trying to book weddings for RiNo Point, saying the venue would likely open in late 2020 or early 2021.

Dawson declined to comment on when the decision to back out of Denver was made, or the factors behind it.

Alison Nestel-Patt, Formativ’s director of marketing, attributed the decision to the coronavirus pandemic.

Denver has several wineries — including Infinite Monkey Theorem

Urban Winery and Bigsby’s Folly Craft Winery — which already operate in RiNo.

Lot Twenty Eight is largely vacant, although fitness chain AKT operates in part of the building.

Signs for RiNo Point Winery are still plastered on windows of the building. Also posted is a public notice that Formativ has applied for a certificate of demolition eligibility for the property.

That certificate, if granted, makes it easy to demolish a structure within five years.

Property owners often apply if they’re planning a demolition, or are considering selling the property and think a buyer might want to.

Nestel-Patt, however, said that is not the case. The building already has a certificate that is expiring after five years, she said, and the company is just applying for a new one in case it wants the option down the road.

“It’s not for sale and we have no plans to demolish,” she said of Lot Twenty Eight.