Gilbert, Ariz. — Veteran-owned Cider Corps cider closed its Gilbert location Wednesday to the public.
The difficult move comes two years after developing the property for occupancy and commercial difficulties with the economy.
On the Cider Corps website, co-owner Jason Duren explains in part:
“We developed the space with the landlord and we learned that the building had permits and an official certificate of occupancy from the Town of Gilbert. We were told that all we had to do was take responsibility and move from retail to assembly For the water room. Unfortunately this was not the case and along with a number of other difficulties our Gilbert business has had difficulty operating fully as a business. Without elaborating, our struggle came to a head when our landlord passed away .Now that the building has been sold, we have only one option: to return to our base camp in Mesa.”
This move will come at a heavy price, especially since Mesa’s position is smaller than Gilbert’s and they won’t be able to install all the equipment.
“Unfortunately, because the ceiling heights here are so much shorter compared to our Mesa location, we end up selling a lot of the bigger tanks,” Duren said.
“We built [the Gilbert] space to accommodate this, now we must build [Mesa] The space is kind of for all the new stuff,” he told ABC15.
That’s why businesses are asking their communities for support during challenging times.
Still, overcoming challenges is nothing new to Duren.
This is how he first got into the cider business.
“I was in the Marines in 2012, hit two IEDs, had two traumatic brain injuries, so when I came back, I went through a lot of different healing and relearning,” he said.
He said learning how to make hard cider with his brother was part of the therapy that helped him rebuild the processes and skills that eventually turned into a business venture.
To learn more or to donate to a Cider Corps Mesa location, visit here.