Project of the Month: Haynes Group and Phase Zero Design complete third brewery together - Break Rock Brewing Co., Quincy

Quincy, MA Construction has wrapped on a destination brewery in the coastal neighborhood of Marina Bay.

Proprietor Jay Southwood combined his love and knowledge of craft beer with his roots in the South Shore, and the concept for Break Rock Brewing was created.

“I always knew I wanted to be in beer, I’ve worked in breweries and grew up on the South Shore, so this made sense for me and Quincy being the first without a brewery made sense,” Southwood said. “Initially, we didn’t have a final vision for this space, I had a general direction. And that direction is really tied to the community, I wanted some historic nod to Quincy, MA. From presidents to founding fathers, to granite stoneworkers and ship building.”

The brewery, designed by Phase Zero Design and built by The Haynes Group, is a 5,085 s/f brewery featuring a main bar, game room, and tap room, with unique design elements such as shadow boxes with historic memorabilia, a large wall print of a historic LIFE Magazine photograph, and a bar that opens up onto the Marina Bay boardwalk.

“The development of the brewery included plumbing, which is very important, we have exposed ceilings so there was a lot of equipment scheduled that we had to dance around, the pacer window was a huge design element and I think it’s going to be very popular in this location. But with the sand and the salt in the air from the ocean, among other challenges, we had to really come together as a team to develop this space,’ said Angela Atwood, project manager at Haynes Group.

This project’s success is truly the result of above average collaboration. “Working very closely with the owner, our construction partners at Haynes, and the entire Quincy community to imagine this physical representation of their history was invigorating,” said Julie Nelligan, senior interior designer at Phase Zero Design, “this dedicated and versatile project team helped Jay Southwood overcome challenges that could have been detrimental to another.”

As with all of Haynes Group’s projects, hospitality and client/patron service are infused into every aspect of the Break Rock Brewing build-out. A commitment that mirrors well with Phase Zero Design’s focus to always put their client’s vision and goals for a project before their own.

“I connected with Jay on this brewery concept back in 2018,” said Patrick Andrews, senior vice president of hospitality at Haynes Group. “We were supposed to kick this off in 2020, but when the pandemic hit the concept was temporarily placed on hold. It’s been great to be a part of this with Jay since the beginning, seeing how the concept has evolved over the last several years and the result we handed over to him.”

“Haynes was awesome, really excellent team to work with. Angela and Chris (Pizzi, site superintendent) were my day-to-day contacts and were both kind of quarterbacks in their own fields. Angela made sure the players were where they needed to be, and Chris has a unique ability to communicate with people well but also to step in and do the work and that’s not something that a lot of people in that position has in my past experience both commercial and residential, so its really been a great team to have; super communicative, good to work with, they show a lot of foresight in seeing things coming down the line. I couldn’t be happier with this experience,” Southwood said.

The Haynes Group team built-out this space which included furnishing and installing MEPs to maintain the production area.

“One of the biggest challenges the construction team faced was the underground plumbing, we really had to grind it out and inlay with some sand, lay out all of the plumbing,” said Atwood. “With breweries, the production space requires a lot of attention to that detail. Phase Zero Design and Haynes Group came together very collaboratively to make this happen.”

Although the underground plumbing posed a challenge overall, the buildings surprises were minimal.

“The building we built-out is relatively new and we’re lucky in that regard because there aren’t a lot of surprises, the few that we had we were able to address in short order working with Haynes Group and our architect, Phase Zero Design,” Southwood said. “The communication between all of us and the foresight that Haynes Group had helped really navigate the issues that we had.”