Within the years following the 2016 launch of Good City Brewing, co-founder Dan Katt discovered himself fully immersed in a fast-growing entrepreneurial enterprise, studying the ins and outs of a brand new trade.

An area craft beer growth set the stage for the brewery’s early development, and Katt leaned on his intensive background in business actual property (he launched an actual property improvement and consulting agency in 2013 and earlier than that was challenge improvement director for Eppstein Uhen Architects and enterprise improvement supervisor for building agency J.H. Findorff & Son) to information Good Metropolis’s enlargement from a single location on Milwaukee’s East Facet to a second taproom and restaurant within the Deer District after which the acquisition of a 53,000-square-foot constructing at Century Metropolis enterprise park for its workplace and warehousing operations.

Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and Katt, with companions David Dupee and Andrew Jones, stepped as much as a “entire different degree of involvement and dedication” to maintain the enterprise going, mentioned Katt. And Good Metropolis saved rising, with a 3rd taproom location that opened in Wauwatosa in 2021.

So, understandably, it wasn’t till the previous 12 to 18 months, mentioned Katt, that he was in a position to begin fascinated by what else he’d love to do along with his profession.

“Within the early summer season, I used to be form of fascinated by both kicking off some new actual property initiatives by myself, which is what I had been doing previous to Good Metropolis, however then I reconnected with Bob Monnat at Mandel Group – I’ve identified Bob for 20 years – and he expressed a want to possibly attempt to make one thing work collectively,” Katt defined in a latest interview with BizTimes Milwaukee.  

That dialog finally led Katt to join Milwaukee-based multifamily real estate development firm Mandel Group last month as improvement supervisor, working alongside Monnat, the agency’s senior associate.

Katt stays concerned at Good Metropolis as an proprietor, however over the previous two years, he and the founding companions have been in a position to transition out of the corporate’s day-to-day operations because the “subsequent technology of leaders” take the reins. Earlier this yr, three managers had been introduced on as half house owners: Andy Hartzell, normal supervisor; Dane Mariani, brewery operations supervisor; and Manny Ramirez, head of kitchen operations.

Now, with a succession plan in place, Katt stays assured in the way forward for Good Metropolis, and has his sights on this subsequent chapter of his profession. He spoke extra about it in an interview with BizTimes Milwaukee related editor Maredithe Meyer. The next are excerpts from their dialog. 

How are you discovering the transition from working your personal enterprise to now working for an organization?

“It is nice. Actually, after 10 years of (working for your self) it may be fairly lonely at instances to be form of doing every thing your self. I would not say that I did every thing myself, however you are used to possibly not having the identical sources that you’d at a extra established place. So I really feel like I get to not solely deepen my data and study so much, significantly in multifamily improvement, but additionally on a bigger scale, I can work on initiatives which can be seemingly past what I may have achieved myself, in order that’s tremendous rewarding. After which I am working with Bob, who I’ve identified for a very long time, so there’s lots of belief there, however there’s only a actually nice tradition and nice group of individuals, and it is vitally entrepreneurial and it is vitally challenge primarily based. And so that every one feels very acquainted and pure. It is not essentially tremendous company, it is vitally entrepreneurial from a improvement standpoint. To date it is actually been nice, I am actually having fun with it.” 

So, you stay aside of the Good Metropolis possession, however past that, what’s the extent of your involvement at this level?

“Actually monetary oversight and general technique for the enterprise after which nonetheless management for our managers in serving to them information the ship and allow them to make choices on their very own, however that is primarily it. It is also experimental in a means for me as a result of Good Metropolis was a child and it is grown up somewhat bit, so it takes somewhat little bit of braveness to step apart and belief that it is nonetheless going to be executed extremely effectively. We actually couldn’t have higher folks, so I am actually grateful for that. Once I take into consideration the place we had been after we began by way of expertise of working a brewery or a restaurant, our group has far more expertise than these of us who began it. That makes it somewhat bit extra easy and easy by way of the way in which you concentrate on it.”

Do you ever see your self ever phasing out of the enterprise fully, or do you propose to all the time keep concerned as a part of the possession? 

“Yeah, I anticipate staying concerned for the lengthy haul. We have constructed a model, we might just like the enterprise to proceed to develop and that is why you herald and also you elevate leaders and managers since you need it to be sustained over the lengthy haul. And also you wish to create alternatives for folks to remain and develop their very own careers. And so, generally that requires you to form of get out of the way in which your self. However I am nonetheless very tuned into what is going on on and we’re nonetheless working on daily basis to enhance our product and our expertise and what we’re providing to folks and to distinguish ourselves from our competitors.” 

Some other takeaways? 

“General, I am identical to tremendous excited to be, once more engaged on extra issues and issues sooner or later which can be a part of the realm and area’s development. And that is actually my ardour general, whether or not that is actual property or whether or not that is beginning a brewery. It’s additionally nice to reconnect with lots of my colleagues in the true property world, who possibly I’ve seen at Good Metropolis however have not seen professionally for some time.”