New owners hope to add rooftop deck to Whitefish brewery
The former Great Northern Brewing Co. facility in downtown Whitefish. The new owner of the building is planning to add a rooftop bar and restaurant area. (Daily Inter Lake FILE)
The new property owners of the Great Northern Brewing Co. in downtown Whitefish have submitted an application to the city for a conditional-use permit that would allow them to own, operate and expand the brewery and restaurant to include a rooftop deck, among other features.
The application comes from California resident Rob Isackson who, along with other business partners, purchased the brewery and another nearby building that sits off Baker Avenue in late 2019. The nearby building contains businesses including Markus Foods, SaltBox Dry Salt Therapy and Tree of Life Tattoo that lease their spaces from the property owners.
Isackson recently told the Daily Inter Lake the new owners’ intentions are to renovate the properties, but maintain the existing businesses. And the recently submitted permit application, which goes before the Whitefish Planning Board on April 16, now offers insight to those renovation plans for the brewery.
While the former owners already had acquired a beer and wine license from the state, there was no conditional-use permit issued for such services. According to the application, a permit is required in order for the new owners to extend hours of operation or to increase square footage of the service area.
The owners, according to the application, are looking to keep the facility open from 8 a.m. to 2 a.m. and hope to increase the restaurant service area to include “a larger portion on the first floor (shrinking the brewery square footage) add square footage to the second floor through renovation, and add a rooftop deck and service bar.”
The intended use of the property will be the same, according to the application, but will just have the expanded hours of service and larger internal and rooftop footprints. The rooftop patio will be under the city’s allowed third-story requirement of 45 feet and will also be set back 20 feet from the north and east property lines to meet setback requirements. The patio will “not be able to be visually seen very easily from the street level” and will be “similar in styling as the existing building.”
The application is for the brewery and restaurant facility only. There are no details regarding the owners’ intentions for renovating other businesses such as Markus Foods. The application and blueprints for the brewery upgrades can be found on the city of Whitefish’s Planning and Building website under “current land use actions.”
Reporter Kianna Gardner can be reached at 758-4407 or kgardner@dailyinterlake.com