Help fund St. Pete Ferments’ and Queen & Colony’s relocation.
How it works:
We’ve organized a fundraiser with benefits to you that I believe will be worth your while. We’ve come up with some creative enjoyments for all different levels of donation — a lineup fit for the funkiest of fermenators. If you believe in what we’re doing and have the means to donate, then I encourage you to take a look at the fundraiser we have going on. Every level of benefit stacks onto the next. (If you’d like to show your support with a smaller donation, you can do that too!)
Each donation level is listed below with corresponding tiers of benefits. Funding the project is easy: once you press the donation button (at the top of this webpage), you’ll be brought to a simplified checkout. There, you can enter any amount that you wish to donate. After your donation is made, you’ll receive an automatic receipt of confirmation. We will also have all the donor info available on our end and will also confirm your donation and level of benefit in a second email.
Tier 1 - $25
hand written thank-you note w/ local seed packet
Tier 2 - $50
custom risograph prints of our local abundance, courtesy of Print St. Pete (+5 raffle tickets & Tier 1)
Tier 3 - $100
limited kombucha bottle release collab St. Pete Ferments x Queen & Colony (+10 raffle tickets & Tiers 1-2)
Tier 4 - $250
have a bee colony named after you! (+20 raffle tickets & Tiers 1-3)
Tier 5 - $500
Future Pass! 10% off 1 year of product purchases* OR 1 year class pass (+30 raffle tickets & Tiers 1-4)
Tier 6 - $1,000
limited seating farm style dinner** (you plus one guest; +40 raffle tickets & Tiers 1-5)
* For St. Pete Ferments and Queen & Colony retail items. Excludes wholesale. Class pass for any St. Pete Ferments or Queen & Colony workshops. Year starts from date of open-house celebration.
** Tier 6, farm style dinner, will be limited to 10 donors (20 including their guests). Save the date for Friday, Oct. 25, 2024. Details to follow via email leading up to event.
The very short version of what happened:
The building we lease space from sold within a short timeline, and tenants are being forced to leave.
Fortunately, we found a new location in record time. We’ll be joining Queen & Colony in a new space.
This transition was both sudden and costly, so we’ve started a fundraiser with some cool incentives and perks.
How this fundraiser works:
Each donation level is listed toward the beginning and end of this webpage, with corresponding tiers of benefits. Once you press the donation button, you’ll be brought to a simplified checkout, where you can enter any amount that you wish to donate. After your donation is made, you’ll receive an automatic receipt of confirmation. We will also have all the donor info available on our end and will confirm your donation and level of benefit in a second email.
>> Read on to learn what happened, what our plan is, and what the benefit package for each donation level entails. Let’s get into it.
So… what the heck happened?
In late April 2024, we received some bad news: The building we lease commercial space from was sold, and the new property owners wanted to get rid of all existing tenants. For context, the building was listed for sale at the beginning of this year. This wasn’t a complete surprise — my landlord had been communicative of wanting to sell a little before listing, so I knew this was a possibility.
When the building was listed in mid January, it was made clear in the listing verbiage that there was an existing, long-standing tenant that wished to stay. Once several people had looked at the property and exchanged supportive words, we were feeling confident that, 1. A potential buyer would want to keep St. Pete Ferments in the building, seeing as we’d been a long-standing and reliable tenant, and 2. We would likely have time over the summer to figure things out and plan while the building continued to be shown, seeing as it had been listed quite recently.
Unfortunately, neither of those wound up being the case. Our landlord found a buyer by mid-April, and the incoming owners made it explicitly clear that, as part of the deal, they wanted no tenants. We were never given a reason why, nor had the new owners spoken to us throughout this tumultuous time. We have been on a month-to-month agreement at this space for six years, which can have its pros and cons. In this scenario, our lease term was a major disadvantage.
At that point in April, we were given 75 days to vacate — 45 days to close, and an added 30 days only because my landlord fought for us to have the added time. This was also despite being pressured to close by the new owners as soon as possible. 75 days was technically enough time to at least try and find a new space, but it felt like no time at all.
It’s important to keep in mind that this news directly affects more than just St. Pete Ferments — Josh and Rebekah Harris of Queen & Colony Bee Company are impacted as well. They are permitted at our establishment to bottle honey, which is a vitally important aspect of their business. They have been in business since 2015 and work extremely hard for their family of nine. I consider them not only a strong link in our local foodshed, but also amazing friends. It absolutely crushed me to know that this development was going to have an impact on them.
At first, we were feeling extremely down and hopeless. But after a couple days had passed and the news had truly sunk in, we started looking for space with our real estate agent, Jenna Malowany (with Archer Group). She was on the case immediately and tackled what felt like the impossible.
With Jenna’s help, we found a great space and I signed a lease at the end of May. And we’ll be sharing this new space with our great friends Queen & Colony as well! This space is much larger than where we have been, and it will allow us to meet our community’s needs better. We’ll also be closer to downtown/uptown areas, which will be more convenient for a lot of you who have been wanting something outside of market weekend for customer pickups.
Goodbye, 8th Ave S…
So, what can you expect from this new space as it takes shape?
This is the moment for us to finally, finally, have an option for retail. Retail, but reimagined from the working food makers. As well as a permanent home for workshops and events. Yaa! We’ve had these ideas for some time and have always wanted to make them a reality, but we just did not have the space to make it work. These are also elements our customers have been requesting for years. Now is the time we can finally make it happen, together.
But it’s like the Grateful Dead sang: every silver lining has a touch of grey. In the end, time was truly on our side with all of this. But I can’t stress what a close call it was. Had another couple of weeks gone by, had one card fallen out of place, I could have been forced to share a very different outcome with you all.
Our Touch of Grey.
Moving commercial locations is extremely expensive and time consuming, and that’s not including how costly this past season was for us already. We made many upgrades to aid our production this season to accommodate growing demand, such as upgrading to a hefty continuous feed processor, larger fermenters, etc. Some of those upgrades, like our new filtered brew line, will now have to be completely redone at the new space.
This is all a double-edged sword with summer coming up, as summer is much slower in terms of sales. This means we will have more time to nest in the new space, but we’ll also be missing the extra revenue needed to bridge the gap.
Our Silver Lining.
But even through all of it, y’all, we have a feeling that this could still be the best thing to ever happen to St. Pete Ferments, and to Queen & Colony. You all give us a renewed sense of hope and optimism — every season, every market, every day. You all, the fermenators, truly are the reason we keep pushing on.
In the future, this could also be a useful space for local food talks and connections. Like a forum to bring farmers, restaurateurs, and local food makers together around the same topics. We’ve got lots of ideas buzzing in our heads, and there is also opportunity for these types of things to form organically. Just know that we’re open to the possibilities, but first things are first.
How can you help?
It’s tough for me to ask for donations, because over the past nearly eight years, I haven’t. But between the relocation itself, the transformation of the new space with room for added retail and local food benefits, and taking care of our team through it all — these costs are unprecedented. Our goal is to raise $30k, and we plan on keeping everyone updated as we make progress.
Your donations will help cover our short-term expenses such as:
• lease deposit
• attorney fees for doc review
• moving truck/fuel
• moving expenses and labor
• plumbing and electrical installation
• utility deposits for electric and water/sewage
• internet installation
• payroll
• water filling line for brewing
• new licensing & permitting
• updated insurance policy for new space
• layout approval through the department of agriculture
• various hardware, tools, paint, supplies, materials, etc.
These funds will help the next phases of a front retail & flex space, which would include materials and supplies needed for:
• simple retail for St. Pete Ferments, Queen & Colony, plus select local items
• a permanent home for workshops and classes
• pick-up point for resident farmer CSA (to be announced!)
• small events in the name of local food camaraderie
How it works:
To make things a little more fun, we’ve organized a fundraiser with benefits to you that I believe will be worth your while. We’ve come up with some creative enjoyments for all different levels of donation — a lineup fit for the funkiest of fermenators. If you believe in what we’re doing and have the means to donate, then I encourage you to take a look at the fundraiser we have going on. Every level of benefit stacks onto the next. (If you’d like to show your support with a smaller donation, you can do that too!)
Each donation level is listed below with corresponding tiers of benefits. Funding the project is easy: once you press the donation button (at the top of this webpage), you’ll be brought to a simplified checkout. There, you can enter any amount that you wish to donate. After your donation is made, you’ll receive an automatic receipt of confirmation. We will also have all the donor info available on our end and will also confirm your donation and level of benefit in a second email.
Tier 1 - $25
hand written thank-you note w/ local seed packet
Tier 2 - $50
custom risograph prints of our local abundance, courtesy of Print St. Pete (+5 raffle tickets & Tier 1)
Tier 3 - $100
limited kombucha bottle release collab St. Pete Ferments x Queen & Colony (+10 raffle tickets & Tiers 1-2)
Tier 4 - $250
have a bee colony named after you! (+20 raffle tickets & Tiers 1-3)
Tier 5 - $500
Future Pass! 10% off 1 year of product purchases* OR 1 year class pass (+30 raffle tickets & Tiers 1-4)
Tier 6 - $1,000
limited seating farm style dinner** (you plus one guest; +40 raffle tickets & Tiers 1-5)
* For St. Pete Ferments and Queen & Colony retail items. Excludes wholesale. Class pass for any St. Pete Ferments or Queen & Colony workshops. Year starts from date of open-house celebration.
** Tier 6, farm style dinner, will be limited to 10 donors (20 including their guests). Save the date for Friday, Oct. 25, 2024. Details to follow via email leading up to event.
Open house celebration/Picking up your donor gifts.
We are planning to host an open-house celebration once the space is officially ready, tentatively looking like end of summer. That’s when donors will receive their benefit tier gifts. How fun! We will also be hosting a raffle, with participants entered for a chance to win items from a bunch of our favorite businesses around the Burg and Bay, including:
Bandit
Golden Dinosaurs Vegan Deli
Grove Surf & Coffee
Indie Flea
Meacham Urban Farm
O’Berry’s Succulents
Sans Market
Saturday Morning Market
Twisted Indian
Wild Child
Zuzu Bartlett, artist
& more to come!
Several of our fundraising tiers include tickets for the raffle. Please note that raffle tickets are only available via purchase of a fundraising package; tickets will not be sold or distributed on-site at the event.
Once again, I want to thank you all for your patronage over the past eight years. To even have a community to turn to during a time like this… I have such immense gratitude. We know the economy is truly awful right now, and that we as a whole have never been more strategic with how we spend our dollars. Budgets are ultra tight, if existent at all. We appreciate any of you who would even consider investing in a big change like this, and we maintain the spirit that this is for all of us.
As we move forward over the coming weeks, we’ll be happy to keep everyone posted as things progress. (I’m sure it will be a point of discussion at the market booth, so stop by and say hi!)
This is a wild time for us. And while it’s challenging, we have a lot to be thankful for. You don’t always get to decide when you’re going to be pushed out of the nest… but here we are. I know we’re not alone. We have the best community we could ask for. And that’s all thanks to you! Let’s keep local food alive!