NEW! GDC Trading Post planned for summer 2026 opening
Greytown’s fast growing Distilling Company needs a home
In 2022, Greytown Distilling Company (GDC) crowdfunded a boutique business with a mission to make premium local gin, create real jobs and provide visitors with a keepsake of Greytown in a distinctive stainless steel flask. Three medals and eighteen months later, the company is looking towards it’s first million dollars in revenue.
Building a world-class home that is designed to create a visual billboard for GDC and a deeply immersive and memorable social experience for visitors is the next magnificent stage in this exciting story.
And as we thought about what our home should be called and what it could look like, we visited some of the world’s leading distilleries and tasting rooms, created by some of the most successful brands, for inspiration. Because why would we do anything other than world class?
Here’s what the NEW GDC Trading Post will look like
Rustic charm on an exaggerated scale
Our exterior inspiration is influenced by the Small Farms Association that built many of Greytown’s original buildings from 1854. Rather than create a faux Victorian façade, we’re taking a slightly more humble approach with our farm barn inspired 1850s era design. Rustic, comfortable and approachable, our GDC Trading Post is designed to be impressive in scale but timeless in appeal. Wherever possible, local and sustainable building materials will be used throughout the construction.
Enter (and exit) through the tasting room and mercantile
Step inside and be wowed by the theatrical impact of our retail foyer, the magnificent two story fully functioning copper still complex visible through the glass walls as GDC’s production team distils and packages the award winning gins in our distinctive stainless steel flasks. It’s a fully stocked showroom of GDC gin varieties, professional grade glassware, cocktail making tools, recipe books from some of the world’s most recognised bars and branded merchandise to remember the visit by. Creating the human experience are a series of tasting stations, enabling guests to sample gins from a menu of classic award winners or seasonal distillations designed for a special occasion.
Bringing a group? Private tastings in themed lounges with library edition gins will elevate the visit up another level, with special gin educational experiences and distillery tours with our gin-makers available by appointment.
INTRODUCING CANTEEN at the Trading Post
A GDC RESTAURANT
Dining experiences we’ve loved since we discovered fire
No pretension and nothing that can’t be pronounced on the menu. Canteen’s approach will be a contemporary take on a classic steak house, with an open fire wood stove and grill inside to create the drama and taste our human genetic code is drawn to. All local organic vegetables, fresh line caught seafood, heritage meats and wild game. Food our bodies crave, matched with GDC gins, the region’s best wines, premium ciders and craft beers.
And there’s the little things we thought of to make the experience incredible. An elevated performance area for live music. Drawers in your dining table to hold your cutlery. Bread delivered in a branded towel you can keep. And when you’re ready to pay, we’ll bring the bill and the payment facility to you. Just a little international sophistication to finish off your evening.
INTRODUCING PUBLIC HOUSE at the Trading Post
A GDC COCKTAIL LOUNGE
London? Manhattan? Barcelona? Make that Greytown
We’ve come a long way in our appreciation for the art and craft behind an elegant cocktail. Skilled bartenders and mixologists in other parts of the world are as sought after as Michelin starred chefs. Not only will PUBLIC HOUSE boast the longest bar in the lower North Island, it will include a service team that bring cocktail sophistication up to an international standard. GDC gins will sit alongside a range of premium global spirits, the very best in local and regional wines and some carefully selected beers and award winning ciders.
PUBLIC HOUSE will be the place to relax for your meet up with friends before the meal or to grab a selection of small plates for a more casual evening out.
INTRODUCING PIE HOLE at the Trading Post
A GDC BAKERY
A kiwi icon reinvented
Simply the best pies you’ve ever eaten, available seven days a week from some of New Zealand’s finest chefs. At PIE HOLE, we’ll only use the very best premium ingredients, with no shortcuts, to bake pies. Incredible pies. Pies for you to take away or eat in out outdoor garden with a creamy milkshake or a GDC gin and tonic.
It’s where we want to gather
Outdoors around a fire pit under an open sky on a summer’s evening. Cosy and warm on a winter’s afternoon with your favourite book next to an open fire. GDC’s gathering spaces will be constructed for conversation, romance and human connection. Every aspect of our colours, lighting, music, furniture selection and service style will be designed to bring us closer together. Our guests will be the main event. Everything else we do will be designed to make the afternoon and evening exceptional.
Planet positive
Solar power generation, battery storage, water re-use, waste water recycling, raised vegetable beds, carbon neutral building materials. All of the basics you’d expect from a company that cares about creating premium products in a way that minimises environmental impact.
Connected to a bigger picture
Greytown Distilling Company’s Trading Post is positioned as stage one within a planned hotel, retail and entertainment complex called Pahikara. Most of the land required for this proposed development is available; the remaining rate-payer owned portion is scheduled for consultation by South Wairarapa District Council in the next 12 – 18 months. It is proposed that the 20 room premium boutique hotel complex will be linked to the GDC Trading Post through a landscaped laneway that also connects directly to Greytown’s historic Main Street.
Opening for summer 2026, our timing goals will be linked to fundraising success and reasonable expectations around council consents and building project variations.
| Finalise funding | September 2024 |
| Finalise design | December 2024 |
| Consents | March / April 2025 |
| Construction | May 2025 to August 2026 |
| Fit out | September 2026 to October 2026 |
| Opening | November 2026 |
Who’s involved
Greytown Prosperity is a limited liability company with Gavin Hodder, Adam Blackwell and Melissa Blackwell as directors. The project’s vision and creative inspiration would be managed by Greytown Prosperity.
Architect: James Mackie, Greytown / Builder: Holmes Construction, Greytown
Note that the scope for this development includes the construction of the GDC Trading Post, but excludes fit outs for each of the operational businesses and any investment funds raised are exclusively for construction purposes. It specifically excludes any investment within the operational companies tenanting the building. Returns for investors will be generated by rents received and capital gains realised by a potential sale of the building at a later date.
For more information, contact adam@greytowngin.com