SALT LAKE CITY — The future of Utah’s first Black-owned brewery, Policy Kings, is up in the air a little more than four months after opening in Salt Lake City’s Central Ninth neighborhood.
The business’ landlord, HMB Partners, issued an eviction notice to the business earlier this month and filed suit last week in 3rd District Court to force the business out. HMB also seeks around $50,000, saying it is owed in unpaid rent and other charges. The business received two $75,000 loans from Salt Lake City, though that doesn’t figure in the issues between Policy Kings and HMB.
Reps from the two sides didn’t respond to queries seeking comment and Policy Kings officials haven’t yet filed a response to the lawsuit. However, Policy Kings posted a message on its Instagram page Friday stating that it was ceasing operations. That post and all the earlier Policy Kings messages were later removed with a new message on Sunday featuring a picture of the locale’s founder, Deandre Ridgel, and a poem that sounded a message of seeming defiance.
“I know you want me to/walk away,/ to close this chapter,/ to put me in my place,” it reads, in part. “But I am not smoke./ I do not bend./ I am memory./ I am truth./ I am the quiet rage you/ cannot silence.”
Ridgel’s wife Sara Ridgel said in a new video Monday on the Policy Kings Instagram page that the business would hold a garage sale Tuesday to get rid of furnishings and miscellaneous items inside the locale — another indicator the brewery is on the way out. “So we’re selling everything that’s in here, in our taproom, the stuff that’s in there,” she said in the video as she walked around the locale.
Policy Kings opened its doors at 79 W. 900 South on May 23, after relocating from Cedar City, where it had been operating since 2018. Last June, after about a month in operation at the Central Ninth location, Ridgel took pride in the diversity of the clientele in the locale, as noted in a previous interview with KSL.com.
“They’re in our space. They feel comfortable. They don’t feel they’re being looked at, or stared at, or scrutinized,” he said. It was the first Black-owned brewery in Utah, according to Salt Lake City officials. Part of Ridgel’s aim in operating a brewery was to diversify the craft brewing industry and broaden its appeal.
The future of Policy Kings has been the focus of attention on social media since at least mid-September. The operation had posted messages on its Instagram account, since deleted, alluding to unspecified issues and Violet Hour SLC launched a public GoFundMe* campaign to help raise money to keep Policy Kings afloat.
“This isn’t just about beer, it’s about protecting a piece of Black history in Utah, supporting Black-owned businesses and making sure we don’t lose a space that was created for us by us,” Violet Hour SLC said on its Instagram page.
What exactly transpired in the few months of Policy Kings’ tenure in Salt Lake City is unclear. The Sept. 10 eviction notice from HMB Partners, based in Salt Lake County, says it is owed $49,304,67 in unpaid rent for July, August and September, late fees, “abated rent recapture” fees for last November, December and January and more.
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“You are behind in payments required by your rental agreement. You must either pay everything you owe or move out within three business days,” reads the notice. “Move out means leave the property, take all your belongings and leave any keys or access cards.”
Policy Kings received two $75,000 loans earlier this year from the Salt Lake City Department of Economic Development to help launch in the city. “As Utah’s first Black-owned brewery, their move to Salt Lake City is an important milestone in our growing craft beer scene, and we couldn’t be happier to support their expansion,” Mayor Erin Mendenhall said in a statement last March announcing the loan.
The $150,000 in loans came from a fund meant to spark private investment, create jobs and strengthen the city’s neighborhoods. The money is to be paid back by 2032, according to terms of the deal with the city. “We do not have any information regarding the business closure beyond what has been reported,” said Katie Matheson, spokeswoman for the city’s Department of Economic Development.
*KSL.com does not assure that the money deposited into the account will be applied for the benefit of the persons named as beneficiaries. If you are considering a deposit to the account, you should consult your own advisers and otherwise proceed at your own risk.
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.
