I am saddened again by Benroya pulling their bid for the old, and newer Olympia Brewery. It seems that there never seems to be a straight answer about why different interested parties pass over the brewery property.

The Schmidt family ran a very successful brewery business until consolidation in the brewing industry took its toll. The Schmidts tried to fight this by buying the ailing Theo. Hamm Brewing Company in 1975 and than merging with Lone Star Brewing in 1976. Unfotunately, Hamm's was too far gone, sales had slumped in a huge way and the fight with old Hamm distributors cost millions of dollars in legal fees that could have gone other places, like developing a new brew, or pushing advertising.

Pabst bought Olympia Brewing in 1983, and then was the target of Paul Kalmanovitz and his brewery wrecking empire in 1985. After this, it was all downhill and fast. Under Kalmanovitz and the new business model, advertising was slashed and only the minimum of brewery maintainance was done. This would haunt the brewery later on. Under the Pabst/Stroh/Miller deal in early 1999, it seemed that the Tumwater Brewery would be reborn. In an asset swap, Miller bought the brewery and the Hamm's label from Pabst, for the best it would seem. New spending happened at the brewery, new machinery was installed, more workers hired and the grounds improved.

About 4 short years later, Miller had turned into SABMiller and Tumwater was shut down. Numerous reasons made the rounds, the brewery was too small to fit into SABMiller's system, the fight with LOTT, Union unrest, and the years of neglect by Pabst of the brewery. Huge money needed to be spent to bring the brewery up to what SABMiller wanted and then it was still too small.

Fast forward to the sale of the brewery to what seemed at the time, a new bottled water company headed by one L. Eric Whetstone. SABMiller was happy to get $14 million for the property and the government and mayor of Tumwater was only too happy to see the site purchased for tax revenue. As things progressed, promises of an opening date were broken, money was spent and vendors went unpaid. In the end, the Daily Zero published an article which Whetstone and his lawyer claim resulted in the loss of a $125 million loan to get the bottled water company running. Did this stop a financial institution from being ripped off in a huge way, or did the story really stop an investor from using the money to turn the site into a positive business for the community? We could argue both ways, and possibly never know the true answer.

L. Eric Whetstone seems to be the present day Paul Kalmanovitz, buying property and breweries, stripping the equipment for sale, taking local government for a ride and disappearing like smoke. On the other hand, we could take a different look at it. Local government and the local newspaper start to attack and pick apart a new business when they don't get the answers they wanted. The cities of Lacey, Olympia and Tumwater make a grab at the properties few valuable assets, the water rights.

Why is it that a reporter at the Olympian can dig up this dirt on Whetstone but one lender gives him $35 million and another was on the verge of giving him another $125 million? What is the true reason that businesses won't set up on the site? Local government more than willing to stick the knife in a business when it suits their needs? Is it LOTT? Is it the Unions? Is it asbestos and the amount of money it will take to clean up? Benroya claiming that the Old Brewhouse is on a flood plain seems to be a pretty flimsy excuse to back out of a business deal. There must be more, and I am very curious to know what it is.