Green Flash Brewing Co. on Monday reiterated its plans to open its Lincoln brewpub, even as it announced further plans to downsize.
The San Diego-based craft brewer said it is closing its brewing operation in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and will stop distributing beers on the East Coast.
The 58,000-square-foot Virginia facility, which opened in 2016, was put up for auction over the weekend, and Green Flash officials on Monday confirmed plans for its closure.
The Virginian-Pilot newspaper reported that the closure will mean the loss of 47 jobs, which follows Green Flash's layoff of 33 people in January.
Green Flash said in a news release that the Lincoln brewpub will "open as scheduled in April." The company has not yet announced an exact date.
Green Flash Brewhouse & Eatery will open in the former Ploughshare Brewing Co. building at 1630 P St., which the company bought last summer.
It will have a brewhouse, tasting room and restaurant. While it will brew Green Flash beers, company officials have said there are no plans for distribution outside of Nebraska.
Along with announcing the closure of the Virginia brewing operations, Green Flash also Monday announced that a new group of investors has taken a financial stake in the company.
Neither the investor group nor the size of the investment was identified, but the company said in the news release that the investors are "committed to maintaining Green Flash’s status as an iconic independent craft-brewing interest."
The company also said that as part of taking on the investor group it would "return to its Southern California roots, and consolidated its distribution to just eight states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Nebraska, Nevada, Utah and Texas."
The company said the Lincoln brewpub "will serve as the model for future customer connection points in the Southwestern United States."