Bellefonte’s Big Spring Spirits is expanding, adding a distillery on Pittsburgh’s South Shore. The Distillery at South Shore is a historic building — the Joseph S. Finch & Co. Building, a whiskey distillery built in 1856.

According to Big Spring Spirits owner and operator, Kevin Lloyd, growth just seemed like a natural extension of the business.

“Big Spring is seven-and-a-half years old now and we’ll be eight in July. We’ve always had good luck in the western Pennsylvania area,” explained Lloyd. “Either selling directly or partnering up, we’ve always had good sales down there.”

Lloyd said he had been making some pretty standard sales calls to the area when an opportunity arose.

PHOTO PROVIDED Bellefonte’s Big Spring Spirits will be expanding with another distillery at the Joseph S. Finch & Co. Building on Pittsburgh’s South Shore. The Pittsburgh location will be part of a $22 million project, which will revitalize the building, which will be known as The Distillery at South Shore.

“I met up with some guys who were looking at revitalizing a site on the South Shore,” Lloyd said matter-of-factly.

The Distillery at South Shore is actually a project five years in the making. In 2017, a group of investors — Cedarcove Capital Ventures, Parkway Service and G&B Consulting Partners — purchased the building with designs on making it a distillery once again. Enter Lloyd and Big Spring Spirits.

Once he saw the location, he said, he was sold.

“There’s this beautiful old wooden building and back in the day they had 50,000 barrels in that warehouse and they would float whiskey up and down the river and sell it … but it’s been abandoned for quite some time. These guys had purchased the site, but they weren’t exactly sure how to move forward,” Lloyd said.

After a meeting with the investors, the wheels went into motion.

“We talked about a whole bunch of different scenarios and eventually decided that I would partner up. They’re primarily financial real estate, commercial development people. They don’t know anything about making distilled spirits and I don’t know anything about commercial real estate. It was a pretty good match. We both brought something to the table,” Lloyd said.

Big Spring Spirits, which opened in 2014, is located at the Match Factory in downtown Bellefonte. The Match Factory was built in 1899, so the similarities between the Match Factory and the Joseph S. Finch & Co. building are comparable. However, there are some noticeable differences, Lloyd said.

“This project is not just the existing building, it’s essentially twice as big — because there’s new construction as well. It will be married to the old building in terms of the floor plate. It will appear as one floor all the way across, but it will be two distinct buildings. One will be made out of these giant wood timbers of the 1800s and the other made out of steel and concrete,” Lloyd said.

The Distillery at South Shore held a successful crowdfunding campaign with Pittsburgh-based Honeycomb Credit that has raised more than $129,000 to bring in local vendors to the redevelopment.

The Joseph S. Finch & Co. building is located on McKean Street between the Liberty Bridge and a rail bridge used by light-rail cars. The project is massive — $22 million, which includes $17 million for construction and restoration of the building and $5 million to renovate the interior. Plans include a 5,000-square-foot space for craft spirits distillery, a 5,000-square foot tasting room, a restaurant with indoor and outdoor seating, a bottle shop, cigar bar, rooftop bar, event space for 400 people and a fresh food market featuring local bakers, butchers and farmers.

The rooftop bar will be called The Finch as a homage to the former whiskey distillery. It will be located on the building’s sixth floor and be open year-round. It will have glass garage doors to provide views of Pittsburgh’s skyline. Those doors can be opened during warmer weather.

Lloyd said there will be a “food hall,” which will feature “seven to eight” food providers.

According to developers, four local restaurants have signed on for space inside the complex: Brazilian restaurant Casa Brasil, the regional chain Millie’s Homemade Ice Cream, Caribbean restaurant 2 Sisters 2 Sons and the Botanical Vegan Cafe & Market.

The location is not far from Pittsburgh’s Station Square as well as the city’s two inclines.

“We think it’s a great location,” Lloyd said. “We hope fans will pregame and postgame with us, depending on the sporting event.”

Big Spring Spirits already has a presence in western Pennsylvania. In addition to a location at Seven Fields in Butler County, Big Spring Spirits are for sale at Duquesne University events, Lloyd said.

“We are the sole liquor provider to Duquesne University. They have a brand new venue, UMPC Cooper Fieldhouse. Our logo is all over — on the scoreboards and everything there. We do on-site events, off-site events. It’s a good partnership. Duquesne really wants to work with us,” Lloyd said.

While Lloyd said Big Spring Spirits won’t forget its roots in Bellefonte, expansion has always been the plan.

“Yeah, it has,” Lloyd said. “We’re looking at some space in the eastern part of the state right now. These distilleries are beachheads for me because we can make stuff, we can warehouse it. Our folks can go out and sell from there, too.”

But don’t worry — the Bellefonte location isn’t going anywhere.

“The Bellefonte location is to service central Pennsylvania,” Lloyd said. “We will continue to make (spirits) and distribute from there. It will have no effect here.”

Lloyd said that he has enjoyed watching Big Spring Spirits take off since its inception.

“I plan for success, but I’m very thankful for what has happened,” Lloyd said. “I’m a firm believer in if you treat your customers right and you treat your employees right, good things will happen. There is a right way to do things. If you do that, you will succeed.”