PALESTINE, Texas — It's been in the works since 2019, but a new whiskey distillery is making Palestine its new home and they have officially moved in.
TahWahKaro distillery owner Justin Jackson had plans to relocate his business to East Texas and his team purchased the old Coors Warehouse on Church Street in Palestine. The team is now working on renovating the building.
"Yeah, it looks pretty rough," Jackson said. "There's a lot of support pieces in a distillery that we need so even though the building is in great shape, we had to make some changes. We currently have contractors working fast right now on our chilling systems to be able to run the kettles and the fermenters and our electrical, which is not too far away from being completed as well."
Before they could move in the city had to make some changes. Church Road was a historically dry road in Palestine, meaning no alcohol sales could be made so in November the city voted to approve alcohol sales at the site.
What used to be a beer production facility is now transitioning into a whiskey distillery.
"At our previous location in grapevine, we just ran out of space, plain and simple. And we found Palestine and just had a really good vibe," Jackson said.
City officials are also looking forward to renovations being completed.
"Palestine is now on the Texas Whisky Trail map so that will affect tourism as well as creating jobs in the community so this project is exciting on so many different levels," said Lisa Denton, City of Palestine Economic Development manager.
TahWahKaro plans to open up this summer.