MANCHESTER, NH – Years ago, Kyle and Travis York used to look out the window of their offices at 175 Canal St. at the low-profile industrial building next door and think about the potential.
A decade later, as the two brothers stand in the outside seating area of the Harpoon Brewery restaurant and tap room, the anchor tenant of Queen City Center, they talk about the long road that brought them there.
Harpoon opened last month, and despite not-quite-finished landscaping and parking lot work that’s been delayed by weather, and the need for a temporary main entrance on Pleasant Street until that work’s done, the brewery’s full menu and 20 tap lines are drawing a steady crowd.
Almost all of the other units in the 30,000-foot building are occupied with complementary businesses. Openings will roll out in the next few weeks, once the parking lot work is done, Travis York said this week.
They’re also in final talks with a tenant to fill the one remaining unit, a 2,500-square-foot space on the lower level next to Barre Life, a yoga studio that is already open for business.
Since the contract for the final business hasn’t been completed, the Yorks don’t want to reveal what it is, but they said that it will fit in with the QCC vibe, complementing the other businesses.
When plans were announced for the lot in the underused, but vital, area of downtown two years ago, the Yorks said their intention was to develop an entertainment and community-gathering area that will draw people and help spread Elm Street’s energy.
Travis York came up with the name Queen City Center. It’s not meant to be an insular location, but more of a hub and spoke, radiating energy out and connecting downtown and the Millyard. “It’s really surprising, how fast it caught on [with potential tenants],” he said.
The tenants were all curated through relationships the brothers had in the community and, while the businesses on site are all different, “They aren’t competitive, they’re complementary,” Kyle York said.
Just two blocks west of Elm Street, 215 Canal had long been surrounded by a chain-link fence and unmanicured overgrowth, and was quickly becoming an anomaly in a resurging downtown Manchester. As new businesses brought new energy to the city, the building occupied 1.3 acres right in downtown’s heart. It was built in 1955 as a printing business and most recently was a contractor for the U.S. Department of Defense.
The Yorks had kept an eye on it from their offices next door, where they are partners in York Real Estate. Kyle York also runs York IE, an investment and advisory firm for tech startups, and Travis York is CEO of GYK & York Creative Collective. Their first meeting with the property owner, Larry Pitsch, was in 2016. Eventually he was ready to sell, and in December 2021 they closed on it, for $2.3 million.
Travis York had already planned to consolidate his video production and commercial content company, which were operating in other locations, in part of the building, but that left a lot of square footage for other things.
The fact that the building was temperature-controlled and industrial made a craft brewery a logical tenant. They didn’t want a large corporate brewery, but needed a big enough name to put a stamp on the campus.
They pitched to Boston-based Harpoon, which has been around since 1986 and is one of the region’s most recognizable craft brewery names. The city, which has been a big supporter of Queen City Center as it developed, played a vital role, the Yorks said.
“We had to pitch them on Manchester,” Travis said. He said Jodie Nazaka, director of the Manchester Economic Development Office, and other city officials, were a big part of the pitch.
“We were selling on Manchester, selling on this campus,” Kyle said.
The timing worked out well. Mass. Bay Brewing Co., Harpoon’s parent, merged last year with New Hampshire’s FinestKind Brewing, parent company of Smuttynose. The merger resulted in Barrel One Collective, which is focused on maintaining the unique quality of the brands under its umbrella, while also providing resources that allow them to expand, particularly into hospitality as craft brewing evolves.
Harpoon Queen City Center is a full-menu restaurant and taproom, with a bar that seats 50, and current capacity of more than 200, a private room that accommodates 40, an onsite brewery, a retail store and an outdoor patio overlooking Canal Street that accommodates 82.
While “taproom” may still conjure up beer, taps and a bowl of pretzel mix – if you’re lucky, Harpoon QCC isn’t your dad’s craft brewery. The brewing elements are definitely front and center, under blue light behind large windows, but what’s not visible to the naked eye is a full commercial kitchen.
“Everything is cooked to scratch,” Jon Young, the general manager, said of the menu. That includes the most popular dish, the three-tier Tender Town Tower, a nod to Manchester’s standing as the Chicken Tender Capital of the World.
Harpoon is family-friendly, and the menu even has a “pie of the day” for dessert. The 40-seat Smuttynose Room private area overlooking the restaurant can be reserved family parties, as well as business events.
The restaurant also has a separate event space that can accommodate 100.
Harpoon is hiring for all positions, including a kitchen manager, for a staff of 45, Young said.
Things have been up and running at the taproom since late June, and customers are finding it, despite the temporary Pleasant Street entrance.
Other Queen City Center businesses are:
- Ashley’s Barre Life, a yoga and barre studio;
- Clyde’s Cupcakes, a cupcake and wine bar that will also have live entertainment;
- Ornate Beauty, permanent makeup and jewelry;
- Wicked Joyful, a unique pop culture gift and action figure store;
- City Club Golf, a membership simulated golf club.
Travis York’s production companies, including GYK, Big Brick Productions and Windy Films, occupy 7,500 square feet at the rear of the building.
As they considered how to develop 215 Canal St., the developers reviewed the city’s master plan, which has a goal of connecting the separate parts of downtown and making previously industrial or barren parts more people-friendly. Making downtown enticing to a younger demographic, and keeping young people in the city, is another goal of city development officials.
Queen City Center aims to play a role in those goals.
Nazaka told Ink Link that the development is an important addition to downtown, “more than just a place for shops and businesses,” but also, “where people come together, help our city’s economy grow, and add to what makes Manchester so exciting and fun.”
The Yorks, Manchester born and bred, have aimed for that ever since they began envisioning what the flat industrial space in the heart of the city could be.
Once the outdoor elements are completed, the green space will include things like shuffleboard and “hangout areas.”
Last year, the city discontinued adjacent West Central Street, and that area will expand the outdoor space, and become a gathering space for artists, crafters and other vendors. The Yorks expect that to be part of the community draw.
Travis York, standing on the Harpoon patio overlooking the soon-to-be-completed green space, said, that they see it as public space, even though it’s private.
Those who use the space “will be doing their own thing and we think it’s going to serve a unique purpose.”
The building at 215 Canal St. is the same one that the Yorks wondered about a decade ago. But now its once-blank exterior shines with large windows, the Harpoon logo and signs for other businesses adding vibrance.
Even though the parking lot and green space are undergoing final work, the view from the Harpoon patio promised an open and welcoming landscape.
In the very near future, when the development is completed, the Yorks’ work will be mostly done, and the tenants, like the green space vendors, will be “doing their own thing,” Travis York said. Even so, they’re part of a whole, with plans for a shared event calendar, and other connected elements.
That’s how they see Queen City Center, too, the brothers said. It’s part of something bigger, the connection to the city vital. “It’s the ‘rising tide [lifts all boats] approach,” Travis York said. “It’s about community.”
Hours:
Wednesday – Sunday: 11 a.m. – 9 p.m.
Monday & Tuesday: Closed
On the web: Harpoon Brewery