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Lorne brewery sold

The brewing days of a Lorne Street landmark are over. The building, vacant since Northern Breweries closed in 2006, has been sold to an unnamed buyer.
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The Lorne Street brewery has been sold. According to Mallette-Goring Real Estate Brokerage, the building sold about three weeks ago. Photo by Marg Seregelyi.
The brewing days of a Lorne Street landmark are over.

The building, vacant since Northern Breweries closed in 2006, has been sold to an unnamed buyer. According to Larry Gauthier, with Mallette-Goring Real Estate Brokerage, the building sold about three weeks ago.

He said the new owners do not intend to tear down the building, but couldn't say what the new use of the building would be, except "it's not going to be a brewery."

The brewery equipment is currently being removed from the building, he said.

"We've had (multiple) offers (for the building) over the last couple years, but this is the first one we've managed to put through," he noted.

The brewery closed a final time in 2006, a year and a half after Northern Breweries was purchased by an investment group in late 2004. It had been mothballed for several years before 2004-2006 attempt to revitalize the brand.

Bill Sharpe, the former head of Lakeport Brewing, was brought in as president and CEO for Northern Breweries.

The cost of upgrading the old breweries in Greater Sudbury and Sault Ste. Marie, wages and poor sales left the company $7 million in debt, and the investment group was unable to find enough interested parties to keep the company afloat.

The company was also fined by the Ministry of the Environment in 2006 after it was unable to clean up an ammonia spill, caused when old piping burst in the building.

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