Craft breweries as a neighborhood amenity: evidence from residential real estate listings

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we make an argument for craft breweries as a neighborhood amenity. Through an examination of the literature, we suggest that craft breweries act as a particularly important type of neighborhood amenity, namely Third Places. Next, in a case study of Charlotte, NC, we use natural language processing and machine learning techniques to show how craft breweries are being advertised as a neighborhood amenity in residential real estate listings. We show that craft breweries are being marketed in neighborhoods that have other neighborhood characteristics conducive to making them Third Places, such as being walkable and being surrounded by other local establishments to create a sense of place. Previous literature has found that residents’ sense of community and sense of place is higher in walkable and amenity-rich neighborhoods. Hence, while craft breweries may act as Third Places, they do not alone create a sense of place or community. Rather they are part of a “package” consisting of multiple amenities.

KEYWORDS:

• Neighborhood amenities
• Third Places
• craft brewing
• natural language processing
• spatial analysis

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the editor and the anonymous referees for their thoughtful comments and suggestions that helped improve the manuscript. All remaining errors and omissions are our own.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The authors recognize the negative social, economic, and health consequences that can result in the over-consumption of alcohol. We emphasize that the literature we are reviewing here highlight the benefits of moderate alcohol consumption in a social setting.

2 Dunbar’s research was conducted in the United Kingdom, where many pubs function as Third Places.

3 The Brewers Association defines craft breweries as those producing 6 million barrels of beer or less annually and distinguishes between four main types of craft breweries: regional breweries, microbreweries, brewpubs, and taprooms. Regional breweries produce between 15,000 and 6,000,000 barrels of beer annually. The other three types all sell under 15,000 barrels of beer annually. A brewery is classified as a microbrewery if 75% or more of its beer is sold off-side while brewpubs and taprooms sell 25% or more of its beer on-site. Brewpubs also operates significant food services, while taprooms do not (Brewers Association, 2022).

4 While we do not know the extent to which craft breweries are mentioned as a selling point in real estate listings in other cities, Josart-Marcelli (2021) does note that they are used in San Diego, CA.