Over five years after developers Tom and Keith Kovatch announced plans to open a distillery and tasting room in Clermont, the first of its kind in the area, plans for the project have been scrapped.

Back in November 2019, the pair signed on to develop the vacant six-acre site of a former steel fabrication plant at the intersection of State Road 50 and 12th Street in Clermont. They intended to partner with Heritage Distilling, an award-winning Washington state craft operation.

At the time, the Clermont City Council approved a zoning change from M-1 industrial to PUD, or Planned Unit Development, allowing the Heritage Square project to move forward with master plans calling for up to six buildings and a maximum of 60,000 square feet of space.

But the changes wrought by the COVID pandemic — and state restrictions on the amount of distilled spirits that could be produced — led developers to scuttle the original plan, Tom Kovatch said. Now they are looking to rezone the property for general commercial use, which may be a steep climb, according to a report in GrowthSpotter.

At a planning commission meeting on May 6, a proposed ordinance rezoning the property was voted down 6-1 with commissioner Michael Cramer as the sole ‘yes’ vote. The ordinance then went before city council on May 13.

“It was zoned industrial before I purchased it and had an acceptance for a PUD which has run out, not because I didn’t want to build the distillery and everything else, but because the state of Florida wouldn’t grant me 250,000 gallons and I couldn’t operate and put $18 million into the project without that being done,” Kovatch said at the council meeting. “I’m changing it back to commercial and to see what may develop from there.”

The city council continues to ponder the change. At its most recent meeting on June 10, the city council voted unanimously to table discussion of rezoning plans until June 24.

The project would have been the first Heritage distillery in the southeast United States, and the first distillery and tasting room in Clermont. Heritage Distilling makes a variety of spirits including bourbon, whiskey, vodka, rum, and gin.

Their Brown Sugar Bourbon was named the “World’s Best Flavored Whiskey” in 2018 and 2019 by Whisky Magazine. They won the award again earlier this year for their Cocoa Bomb Chocolate Whiskey.

In a brief interview with GrowthSpotter, Kovatch said there are currently “multiple plans to do multiple things” with the property and that he is “not at liberty” to speak on specific potential uses.