The Trap Door team pours beer out onto the golden shovels during the groundbreaking ceremony at the site of Pioneer Village in Ridgefield. Trap Door was the first tenant to sign a lease at the mixed-use development, which will also include about 300 apartments. (Alisha Jucevic/The Columbian)Photo Gallery
RIDGEFIELD — Trap Door Brewing won’t open its Ridgefield location for roughly another year, but the first few drinks from the Vancouver brewery were poured in the city Monday morning.
Bryan Shull, owner of Trap Door, and some of his employees were on hand for the groundbreaking ceremony of Pioneer Village southwest of the roundabout at Pioneer Street and 45th Avenue. Pioneer Village will turn about 40 acres of land in Ridgefield into a mixed-used development with about 300 apartments, a new park and retail space.
The ceremony Monday was to kick off construction on the retail component, which could open in about a year, according to developer Ron Edwards.
Edwards, along with Ridgefield city officials, welcomed the first few tenants who signed leases out to the property Monday for the ceremony. When Shull and his Trap Door team members went up to move some dirt with the golden shovels, they cracked open a few cans of Glowed Up, a Trap Door beer which was recently honored with a gold medal at the 2019 Washington Beer Awards. They chugged some of the beer, and poured some in the dirt on their shovels.
“I was a Spudder,” Shull said. “I grew up out here. We weren’t looking for a second location, but when I heard about the plan for the site, I chased (Ron) down to get on board. I trusted him and his vision.”
Shull trusted the vision so much that Trap Door was the first tenant to officially sign a lease at Pioneer Village. The company will have about 4,000 square feet at the site, nearly triple the size of the taproom at the Vancouver location. There will be a full restaurant, space to age beers in barrels and room for fermenting, Shull said.
“When we got Trap Door on board, it definitely got (other businesses) excited,” said Scott Higgins, former mayor of Camas who is now the vice president of the Fuller Group, a real estate company developing the property. “People liked the idea of being next to an already successful business.”
The other tenants with signed leases announced Monday were: Pho Sang restaurant, First Sight Family Vision, the Nail Kitchen, Trinkets Tea and Gifts, BevRidge Public, Master Oh’s Taekwando, Live Life Chiropractic, Copper Bell Bookshop, Studio V salon and the Ridge Steakhouse.
“We wanted to create a shopping village that would be a destination,” Higgins said.
Higgins said he has 10 more businesses committed to the site, but they are not ready to announce yet. He said the project started with about 90,000 square feet of retail space for businesses, and he’s got 15,000 to 20,000 feet left. Edwards said there will be a plaza with space for a weekend farmers market, as well.
Daren Morgan owns Top Shelf Martinis on Main and Cliffs Tavern in Vancouver, and he is opening the Ridge Steakhouse at Pioneer Village.
“There was an opportunity up here to be in a growing area,” Morgan said. “A steakhouse is something Ridgefield needed.”
Morgan said his restaurant, which will be a “mid-priced” steakhouse, will have locally sourced steak and seafood, live bands and dancing.
Sang Le of Happy Valley, Ore., is the owner of Pho Sang. His family owns a pho restaurant in Portland, and he said he wanted to bring their pho to Ridgefield. He was brought to the location by Phuong Ma, a real estate agent.
“The development of homes close by with a natural area was a factor for us,” she said. “People will be here, especially when the grocery store opens.”
Rosauers update
While there were only a few shovels to move around some dirt at Pioneer Village on Monday, the development sat across the street from the future Rosauers grocery store. The 52,000-plus-square-foot grocery store is set to open Nov. 1, according to Eric VanderWegen, operations manager for FDM Development. Not much can be seen inside the building yet, but the store is expected to have a deli, bakery and a pizza oven.
The Rosauers is part of a four-phase development plan for the site. The first phase also include some retail space, which will see a dental clinic, orthopedic clinic and brewhouse open. The second phase will include a Taco Bell and credit union, while the third phase will add a fuel station and drive-through espresso stand. That third phase is being developed by the Port of Ridgefield, which owned the land before selling it to the developer. The fourth phase hasn’t been planned yet, but VanderWegen said it could be “primarily residential” with some of the ideas thrown around, including condos, town homes or a community center.
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