John Carlson, standing, and Robert Carlson broke ground on a $1 million winery at their Willcox vineyards. Construction could be completed by June.
• Great American Eat Company at 1439 S. Fourth Ave., the longtime home of American Meat Co., is set to open sometime in early 2018. The restaurant incubator, which will have six restaurants, a bar and a market, is being developed by the Common Group, which for several years has been redeveloping distressed commercial properties on the south side and bringing new business ventures into those neighborhoods. Great American Eat Company has been more than a year in the making.
• Robert Carlson, who runs his family’s 10-year-old Carlson Creek Vineyards in Willcox with his brother, John, broke ground late last month on a 12,000-square-foot, nearly $1 million winery. Construction could be done as early as June and the new facility will have fermentation space, a custom crush area, barrel space and case storage, along with a private dining room, demo kitchen and events space to host weddings, corporate events parties and other private shindigs. They also are adding a tasting room.
“This will bring a lot of our operations under one roof,” Carlson said. The new facilities also will help the winery to more than double its production from 2,000 cases to 5,000. “The goal is to get this facility up to about 10,000 cases,” he said.
Carlson Creek wines are available at Whole Foods, BevMo, AJ’s, Sprouts and Fry’s statewide, and resorts in Phoenix and Northern Arizona. Carlson said they hope to be distributed in Southern California and Nevada.
