“Ask Me How Brewerytown Is Booming!”

MM Partners threw one heck of a party to promote the neighborhood.

Photo: Brad Maule

Last night at Rybrew — the cafe-restaurant with a superb beer selection at 28th and Girard Avenue — neighborhood residents mingled with real estate professionals and developers to talk about Brewerytown. The event was put together by MM Partners, a neighborhood development and real estate company that is, without question, Brewerytown’s most tenacious evangelist. In order to educate attendees about the neighborhood, MM hand-picked local “experts” — whether business owners or residents — to wear name tags that read: “ASK ME HOW BREWERYTOWN IS BOOMING!”

MM’s Jake Roller explained that the event was targeted to real estate professionals for a reason. “When we started out, I don’t think anyone knew the name Brewerytown,” he said. “We’ve been trying to educate people about the real character of the neighborhood with events like the jazz concerts and the spring festival. I think we’ve made progress with the general public. Now I think the next step in the evolution of the neighborhood is getting people to move here, and that has to start with real estate brokers.”

His hope was that brokers would come to Rybrew, see how terrific the space is, see all the different people who lived in the neighborhood or were buying in the neighborhood, and it would get on their radar. “They’re not as familiar with Brewerytown as they are with Fishtown or Point Breeze,” Roller said. “So it’s about being proactive and educating them.”

Roller said there may be potential homebuyers who love the Spring Garden area, or Fairmount, but the homes are too expensive for them. “They might not know there are other options,” Roller said — but if brokers know that, they can spread the word.

With delicious food from various Brewerytown eateries and free beer, the event got rather crowded, and it’s an open question as to how many brokers ended up asking the name-tagged people to talk in depth. But a good time was had by all, and anyone in the real estate biz would have seen the neighborhood in a new way.