The newly renamed Turnbuckle Distilling company will begin construction this month on a $6 million facility on C-470 in Jefferson County, four years into the pandemic and two years after submitting final plans.

“This was always the plan,” said Barrett Rothe, the distillery’s chief operations officer. “We were looking for land and had almost everything ready when the pandemic hit. And after nine months of site development work with Jefferson County, we are finally ready to start construction.”

The 15,000-square-foot facility will be located on a 5-acre lot just off Bowles Avenue, which has a Littleton address but is in an unincorporated part of the county. It will house production and barrel rooms, a tasting room and restaurant, as well as event space.

“We want the Silo to be both a tasting room and a neighborhood bar,” Rothe said. “And the location will give it that scenic view of the Denver metro.”

Sandy, Rothe’s father, traveled extensively for his work at Deloitte and fell in love with Napa. When he considered retiring after 45 years in Deloitte’s Denver office, he wanted to bring a little of the Napa experience to Colorado, but with whiskey.

In spring 2018, the opportunity arose to purchase the Whistling Hare Distillery in Westminster and its licenses.

The Rothe family always planned to rename the company and build their own facility, Barrett Rothe said. They bought the undeveloped site in Jefferson County in 2021 for $765,000. The new name refers to the hope that the distillery, like the tool it is named after, will bring family and community together.

“The vision is for this to be a family business,” said Rothe, who worked in healthcare project management before joining the company. “I like the slogan of Sierra Nevada Brewing Company – it’s family-owned and controversial. That’s true for us, too.”