BELCHERTOWN — Since Arcpoint Brewery partners Chris Peterson, CJ Eldridge and Dave Pare began their mission to open a brewery and taproom several years ago, all three men were determined to put it in Belchertown.

Following their slogan “brew with tenacity,” Arcpoint Brewery jumped over each roadblock to a location within the town. After the pandemic shut down their initial location and loan in 2019, the men restarted their search for a new site. Belchertown had no zoning legislation permitting wineries, distilleries and breweries in town, so the trio wrote new bylaws themselves that were eventually adopted at Town Meeting. They even turned down offers of sites from Ware, Hampden and Hadley.

“We probably would have opened sooner than the six or seven years it took us to do this, but again the tenacity. We knew what we wanted and we wanted make it happen,” Peterson said.

After hopping over every hurdle, the veteran-owned brewery received site plan approval from the Planning Board last week to renovate 30 Front St., the last step before construction. That will begin as early as next month, and Pare estimates the first brewery in Belchertown will open in early spring.

“We thought this would be something Belchertown is very receptive to,” Eldridge said. “With the support from the town administration, Select Board and the Planning Board, we wanted to bring something to the town we think it is in desperate need of, so we’re very excited that this is going to happen.”

Peterson knew Belchertown needed a brewery since he first moved to the town in 2013 and noticed the lack of restaurants and bars.

“It seemed like a powder keg for a location of a brewery. It sounded like a home run,” Peterson said. “We want to be the spark to get some other like-minded people, some other businesses that can coexist and thrive off each other,” Peterson said.

Peterson began home brewing in 2014 when a neighbor invited him over to help with the brewing process. After asking a lot of questions about the process that his neighbor couldn’t answer, Peterson devoured podcasts, books, videos and blogs on brewing. He was hooked, and brewing more beer than he could drink.

Peterson bottled the product and left them in the breakroom for his coworkers, who submitted rave reviews and even orders. Once Peterson realized he made beer people enjoyed, he decided to turn his passion into a business.

“I did what every other young and kinda dumb kid would do: I went to my best friend and said, ‘Hey, you want to open a brewery?’” Peterson said.

Eldridge and Peterson met at Westover Air Reserve Base in 2011 and quickly bonded over their jobs as aviation mechanics and passion for sports.

Eldridge had been involved with the base’s morale committee, planning different sports events for the unit at various western Massachusetts venues.

“He knew I was interested in finding a way to open a sports bar at the time, but also at the time because of the corps morale committee, I had a lot of different connections with people and venues. So he thought it would be a really good match,” Eldridge said.

Pare came on a couple years later when Eldridge met him a pizza fundraiser for Belchertown High School’s tennis team. At the time, Peterson and Eldridge were looking for investors, and Pare saw a business with good product that could benefit from his 30 years of experience in business operations. He came on board as the primary investor in 2019 and upgraded to co-owner in 2022.

“It’s definitely been a long, strange road for us but we never wavered,” Pare said. “I’m very excited to be part of this team and bring something new and exciting to the town.”

In 2023, the trio secured a loan and signed a lease for 30 Front St., at the Belchertown’s old state school campus. The brewery sits next to soccer and sports fields where families take children to play on recreational teams.

Peterson is most excited to experiment with different beers. He plans to always have four new beers on tap for people to try and plays around with the idea of creating a one-night-only concoctions. Eldridge, however, looks forward to having a place for people to talk, play board games and relax.

“Breweries are a place where people can go and be a little free. They can sit down on the lawn chair, kick their feet up, have their kids run around and have a couple beers,” he said.

Emilee Klein can be reached at eklein@gazettenet.com.