Lake City’s home for craft brews, Halpatter Brewing Company (HBC), has gone from property owners to tenants of its historic Montgomery building at 264 NE Hernando Ave. after facing foreclosure. 

First Federal Bank (FFB) filed a complaint against HBC in February, citing a default on the brewery’s loan from a failure to make timely payments.  

The complaint listed $710,973.06 of charges owed by HBC, including $604,608.58 of unpaid principal balance, $67,840.81 of interest due from May 20, 2024, through Jan. 14, 2025, and $18,479.94 for hazard insurance on equipment. 

HBC manager Amber Tutwiler said selling the building, not the business, had been inevitable for a few months and that the sale was finalized last week.  

HBC is now the tenant of the building’s new owners, who Tutwiler said she didn’t want to disclose the names of or the purchase price until all the legal steps were finalized. 

“The business is well and alive, but having that mortgage was a big overhead,” she said. “The new owners that we’re now tenants of are really great.” 

According to county records, HBC took out its first mortgage with FFB in August 2019 for $440,000, with subsequent $93,362.51 and $35,000 mortgages in March 2023 and January 2024, respectively. In August 2024, the court found FFB entitled to an award of damages and ruled last month that the brewery owners had until July 16 to sell their building. 

Online commercial real estate marketplace LoopNet showed that HBC listed its roughly 10,000-square-foot building on the market on Dec.16, 2024, for $995,000. 

Of HBC’s owners, Jonathan Frazier, Jeremy Gable and Christopher Candler, Mainstreet contacted Frazier and Gable for comment on the sale but received no response.  

Tutwiler said multiple factors contributed to HBC’s foreclosure, such as the overall economic market and the decline in demand for craft beer following the COVID-19 pandemic. 

She also said the brewery suffered after a scammer stole $15,000 from it a year and a half ago.  

“Post-COVID was really, really rough,” Tutwiler said. “But the scammer just really destroyed the business in many ways.” 

Tutwiler said the sale of the brewery’s building will not affect the company and they have plenty of new projects in the works, such as a new seltzer line. 

She said all the recipes are finalized, along with two batches of beer favorites, O’Leno Cream Ale and Seymour & Finnegan’s Red Irish Ale, from a new brewer that all just need to be put into kegs.  

HBC also hosts weekly community events such as live music, open mic karaoke nights, brewery bingo, line dancing and trivia.  

“We’ll continue to brew more, and we have lots and lots of other plans,” Tutwiler said. “We’re resuscitating the company.”  

Named for the Seminole chief, Halpatter Tustenuggee, or “Alligator Warrior,” who resided in Alligator Village, now known as Lake City, HBC aims to honor the area’s cultural roots through its brand and signature beers, such as the O’Leno Cream Ale. 

According to a Cold Beer Here! podcast episode from 2021, Candler said HBC began in May 2015 as a home brewing hobby for the friends in his garage. Candler said the trio combined their business, automation engineering and graphic design skills to start serving their brews at tasting events. 

It was at one of the tasting events that Candler said the then-Columbia County manager offered the historic Montgomery building for the brewers to use. He said the county didn’t want to spend the money to renovate the building, so the brewers bought it, moved in February 2016 and opened for business in 2018. 

Constructed in 1940, the Montgomery building required almost a year of demolition before HBC could open. Having once served as Lake City’s City Hall with a jail downstairs, Frazier said there were a few unexpected surprises, such as a box of Ted Bundy’s clothes left over from an investigation into one of his Lake City murders. 

“[The brewery] really just happened and it’s been incredible,” Candler said. “It’s been the hardest thing we’ve ever done by any means. But you couldn’t have stopped it if you wanted to.” 

Last July, Candler and Frazier opened Halpatter Distilling & Spirits. The fully licensed distillery produces the company’s own vodka, rum, gin and flavored moonshines.  

Visit Florida lists HBC as one of the top breweries to visit in the state.