51ºÚÁÏ

Wellspent, 2917 Olive Street, was for $99,000, and owner Eben Shantz, "a beer nerd at heart," is hoping the competitive asking price will help to find a potential buyer who can give the brewery the effort it deserves.

"I don't really care about the money," Shantz said. "I want to put this in the right set of hands. And I'm more indebted to the brewer than anything else. (Head brewer) Dave (Daues) is just a singular talent, and I want to make sure that he lands in a good spot."

Opened in 2018 by brewer Kyle Kohlmorgen, Wellspent closed in late 2019 due to crippling debt. Shantz, then a customer of the brewery, took over as owner and paid the debt, putting the brewery on solid footing and reopening it in early 2020.

"A little bit of my heart said, you got to help this guy out or he's going to have to declare bankruptcy," Shantz said of his decision to buy it from Kohlmorgen, who stayed on as brewer before eventually departing.

Now, as his family has grown from one child to three, Shantz is ready to hand the business off to someone who can devote more time to it.

Wellspent, though it has a devoted customer base, is not without its challenges. Nationally, beer sales have declined and locally, though many new businesses have opened recently in the blocks surrounding Wellspent, more transformative development has been slow going. The neighborhood has little housing and light foot traffic most days.

The brewery's walk-in traffic recently declined by 15% to 23%, Shantz said.

Shantz refers to Midtown as "the flyover of the flyover" because potential customers mostly just pass through on the way to or from more established entertainment districts nearby.

"Midtown's a struggling area, which will do well in the long term," Shantz said. "It's just being slow right now, and there's no residential around it."

"There's a lot of places that said they would open, and it didn't happen," Shantz said, referencing a plan to build two higher-end hotels near the Wells Fargo property that has yet to materialize.

It's been a tough few months as several 51ºÚÁÏ-area craft breweries have closed in recent months. Earthbound in south 51ºÚÁÏ closed in December while Freestyle Brew Co. in Eureka and Schlafly's Bankside location in St. Charles both closed in January.

Demographic problems have impacted most breweries, something Shantz has seen at Wellspent.

"It makes a big difference if you're not replacing that customer," Shantz said of older customers curtailing their drinking.

"I'd say that was kind of the biggest challenge is just, the tastes of America have changed, and I believe the market's kind of right-sizing itself right now, and there's still definitely a fit for Wellspent.

"The challenge of it is really just getting the right events and convincing people it's not unsafe," Schantz said. "It is a safe area."

Wellspent will remain open while the search goes on.

"I want to kind of see where this search goes for the next owner or correct provider and make decisions from there," Shantz said. "There's no end date set on the calendar right now."