Stillwater's Lift Bridge wins approval to build brewery and taproom in Hudson, Wis.

Lift Bridge Brewing Co. is expanding to Wisconsin — again.

Last year, the Stillwater-based beer maker launched a New Richmond, Wis., brewery and taproom. Now, there's plans in the works to add another location in Hudson, just 10 miles down the river from the original.

The Hudson City Council on Monday unanimously approved Lift Bridge's development plan for a new brewery and taproom, a 17,000-square-foot outdoor beer garden, a restaurant, event space for 300 people and increased production space.

The 5-acre site, a decommissioned dog track, will also be home to a baseball stadium for the St. Croix River Hounds, part of the collegiate Northwoods League.

The new brewery is not a replacement for Lift Bridge's Stillwater or New Richmond facilities, but rather a way to meet demand for Lift Bridge beer, hard seltzer and soda while adding new Midwestern distribution areas. The beer maker is currently brewing and packaging products at six facilities around the Midwest.

Moving the bulk of production to Hudson will free up space in the Stillwater location for events and more research and development, said Brad Glynn, who co-owns Lift Bridge with Dan Schwarz.

"Stillwater is our home base," Glynn said. "We love Stillwater. We want to keep this brewery here."

With the New Richmond site, which the company leases, "there's really no reason to close it. We're super active in that community as well," Glynn said. "So for us, it's like, let's add another community."

Lift Bridge, which started in a garage in 2008, is Minnesota's sixth-largest brewery and is slated to produce more than 20,000 barrels of beer this year. The 35,000-square-foot Hudson site will greatly increase capacity, with the ability to brew 35,000 barrels to start and room to grow. It also will add 20 full-time and 25 part-time jobs in the area.

The idea to expand to Hudson began germinating around five years ago, Glynn said. The pandemic slowed plans down, and the company underwent an ownership change, with Glynn and Schwarz becoming sole owners. But sales have recovered recently, and when the property in Hudson became available again earlier this year, they decided to go for it.

"And we really love the site because of the baseball team that's going in," Glynn said. "We think that a brewery and a baseball field next to each other really provides some great synergy."

Lift Bridge is working with Minnetonka-based Amcon Construction to develop the new property. After additional approvals from the city of Hudson, construction is estimated to begin this fall, aiming for completion by June 2023.