The building at 15 Ryder St. is a vacant two-story box between the Minuteman Bikeway and Ed Burns Arena in Arlington Heights. It sits on a short private way, with a Workbar next door and a landscaping company working out of the far end of the street. It last housed Conneely Contracting. Town permit findings describe that use as a contractor's office, shop and warehouse that brought a lot of large-vehicle traffic. Arlington Brewing Company plans to turn it into a production brewery, taproom, full-service kitchen and outdoor beer garden. Patch reported that a groundbreaking ceremony was set for Wednesday, Oct. 21, and that opening is expected next spring.
If you know the beer from a summer evening at the Jason Russell House or the Arlington Reservoir, the spring room will feel familiar in some ways and less so in others. Much of what it will be like is already written into a town permit. Those conditions came out of hearings with the people who live on Ryder Street, and they shape the place more than any taproom design board will.
A brewery without a building, until now
"We've spent the last several years building Arlington Brewing Company without a permanent home," President and Head Brewer Tom Allen said in a statement quoted by Patch. Allen is a former engineer and longtime homebrewer. The company was founded in 2021 and began selling beer in 2023. It grew through contract brewing and pop-up beer gardens at the Jason Russell House, the Arlington Reservoir and the Old Schwamb Mill.
Those pop-ups taught Arlington what the beer tastes like. Ryder Street will show what the company looks like with its own address. YourArlington has described it as the town's first brewery. That is a meaningful milestone in a town that opened up to alcohol slowly. A Town ballot chronology records the steps. Voters approved five all-alcohol licenses for restaurants and function rooms in 1978 and up to three wine-and-malt package licenses in 2006. A 2010 measure let all-alcohol package licenses replace the wine-and-malt ones, and 2012 votes added two more package-store licenses and wine-and-malt service in qualifying theaters. A production brewery with its own taproom is the next step in that sequence.
The permit was written for the street around the building
The Arlington Redevelopment Board handled the project as Environmental Design Review Special Permit Docket 3838. At the March 2025 hearing, neighbors raised traffic, parking, noise, lighting, lines of customers and pedestrian safety on the narrow nearby streets. Other residents and business representatives spoke in support. One detail set the limits of what the town could do. Town transportation staff said Ryder Street is a private way that its owners maintain, so public funds cannot pay to improve it.
With the street off the table, the board put its fixes on the business. The board voted 4-1 to grant the permit. The special conditions in the original decision read like a set of house rules:
- Outdoor music ends no later than 8 p.m.
- All lines on the property face away from the homes on Ryder Street.
- Employees may not park on Ryder Street, on Beck Street, or in the business's own lot, except when an employee's individual needs require it.
- The business must post parking directions on its website and inside the taproom.
- An A-frame sign goes out when the lot is full.
- The business owner, residents and Town staff must meet to draft a traffic and parking improvement plan for the neighborhood.
- Facade lights facing the parking lot must sit lower than first drawn, with bollard lights added at the far side of the lot.
The design section of the decision adds two more. Deliveries are limited to 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Monday through Friday, which the decision calls non-peak taproom hours. A rideshare pickup zone has been marked on Ryder Street.
What 8 p.m. and 22 bike racks say about the room
Taken together, the conditions describe a taproom for afternoons and early evenings, built around the bikeway.
The parking numbers make that plainest. The plan removes 14 nonconforming car spaces from the front yard, along with the chain-link fence along Ryder Street. That leaves 17 vehicle spaces, which is exactly what zoning requires once a mixed-use exemption is applied. Bike parking goes well past the minimum:
| Bicycle parking at 15 Ryder St. | Required | Proposed |
|---|---|---|
| Short-term spaces, front yard | 6 | 22 |
| Long-term spaces, covered and fenced side yard | 4 | 4 |
Car spaces stop at the legal minimum, and short-term bike spaces run at nearly four times it, on a lot that backs onto the Minuteman Bikeway. Customers are expected to arrive by bike or rideshare, with a sign telling drivers when the lot is full.
The 8 p.m. music cutoff points the same way. It covers outdoor music only. The permit sets no fixed closing time for the taproom. It requires that public hours not disturb the homes next door and that they follow Massachusetts licensing and operating rules. So the beer garden behind the building will be at its busiest on weekend afternoons and summer evenings, then quieter after dark. Anyone who has stayed at a Reservoir pop-up until the light faded already knows that rhythm.
It opens at about two-thirds of the approved size
The approved plan called for renovating the building, adding about 1,000 square feet, and opening a restaurant of roughly 3,900 square feet alongside the brewery. On Feb. 9, 2026, the board approved an amended decision that splits the work into two construction phases.
| Phase 1 | Phase 2 | |
|---|---|---|
| Restaurant size | About 2,500 sq. ft. | About 3,900 sq. ft. |
| Mezzanine | Not built | Added |
| Beer garden | Built behind the building | Already in place |
| Other site work | New doors and windows, covered front entrance, fewer rooftop HVAC units | Expansion of the restaurant |
The Phase 1 dining room is about 64 percent of the approved size. The beer garden comes first, which fits the afternoon, bike-in pattern the permit already sets.
The vote on the amendment was also 4-1. Board member Eugene Benson voted no. He said the applicant should come back for Phase 2 approval after Phase 1 had been operating, so the board could see whether traffic or parking problems needed attention. The majority did not require that. Its findings say the permit is otherwise unchanged and all the original conditions still apply. The 8 p.m. music limit, the employee parking rules and the A-frame sign carry over to both phases, and the larger room can follow without another hearing.
The rest of the Heights may change around it. The board's own findings note that the Master Plan recommends adding uses such as restaurants to mixed-use redevelopment in the Industrial District, and they point to the site's location beside Ed Burns Arena and the Minuteman Bikeway. Separately, the Town is working toward a single Arlington Heights Business District that is more business-friendly and walkable. A public zoning presentation is on the Town calendar for Nov. 5, 2026. The conditions for 15 Ryder St. were settled in 2025 and confirmed in 2026, before that district zoning has gone to a vote.
Where to drink it before spring
The company's beer finder recently listed four Arlington pours and one take-home shop just over the line in Medford. Stock changes, so check the finder before you go:
- Tryst Restaurant, 689 Massachusetts Ave., pouring Spy-P-A
- Zomsa Restaurant & Bar, 434 Massachusetts Ave., pouring Spy-P-A
- Donut Villa Diner, 319 Broadway, pouring Spy-P-A
- Knights of Columbus, 5 Winslow St., pouring Oval Frame and Spy-P-A
- Giles Wine, 630 High St. in Medford, for take-home cans of Bike Path, Herring Run, My Juicy GF, Oval Frame, Russell, Spy-P-A and Zwolf
One beer to look for is Trafford, the company's traditional pub ale, which won a gold medal at the 2026 World Beer Cup. The next date on the company's event calendar is the Arlington Holiday Market on Saturday, Dec. 5, from noon to 6 p.m. at Arlington Town Hall and the Mill Cafe. One caution about the company site: its Visit page still says the project has not broken ground and will open in 2026. The newer schedule is the spring timeline Patch reported.
Turning a contractor's warehouse on a private way into a place where people gather is the kind of reuse our leadership has worked on from the development side, including construction phasing, permit conditions and neighbors who live next door. If you're weighing a value-add or adaptive-reuse project of your own, The Agency Boston can help you see what a building like 15 Ryder St. could become. Request a Complimentary Consultation.
