The remnants of one of Tucson’s oldest craft breweries will close its doors on Nov. 29, five months shy of what would have been its 30th anniversary.
The owners of Brick Box Brewery, formerly Thunder Canyon Brewery, say they can no longer afford to keep the lights on and the beer cold at the downtown brick building they’ve called home for 13 of the brewery’s 29 years.
“We basically have just been kicking the can down the road as far as we can to the point that we haven’t been able to pay ourselves for over a year and a half,” said James Owens, who owns the brewery/restaurant at 220 E. Broadway with partner Michael Nixon. “The cost of service right now outweighs what we’re bringing in.”
Brick Box will be open regular hours through Nov. 29. After that, the owners plan to continue their contract brewing obligations with Ray Ray’s Sonoran Spirit Tea.
The decision to close followed an especially challenging summer that saw a drop in business and sharp jumps in operating expenses, especially when it came to energy costs.
Even though it was on TEP’s most cost-efficient budget billing program, it costs around $4,000 a month to keep the air on. When the owners were unable to pay the bill in September, TEP billed them what was left unpaid on their October bill.
“So we went from $4,200 to a $9,000 electric bill,” Owens said.
Owens said he and Nixon were forced to cut most of their staff in an attempt to “stop the hemorrhaging of money.”
“We’ve been working every single day,” he said. “If you come in on a Saturday, you order a hamburger. I take your order, give you your beers, go cook the hamburger, come back, set up. It's been excruciating.”
Owner James Owens listens to a nearby patron while tending the bar at Brick Box Brewery.
Owens started working at Thunder Canyon when he was 18 and the business, which founder Steve Tracy opened at the Foothills Mall in 1997, was in its fourth or fifth year. Thunder Canyon was just the city’s third brewery behind Gentle Ben’s (which later became Barrio Brewing), which opened in 1991 and Nimbus Brewing, which followed in 1996.
“I watched the city change from three breweries into what it is now, and being a part of that's been an exciting thing,” Owens said. “But it was a very different business.”
The downtown satellite location opened in 2013 with Owens as general manager and Nixon, who had learned to brew under Tracy, as head brewer. Four years later, Tracy shuttered the flagship after Foothills Mall tenants left for the Tucson Premium Outlets in Marana and foot traffic at the mall dropped dramatically.
Owner James Owens polishes up a few glasses while tending the bar at Brick Box Brewery, 220 E. Broadway.
When Tracy announced in 2024 that he planned to retire, Owens and Nixon bought the brewery and rebranded it Brick Box. Nixon, a founding member of the Tucson hip-hop ensemble Jivin’ Scientists with his DJ brother Jason, established a space at the brewery for hip-hop artists and other creatives.
“Brick Box … is open to anybody coming through and doing a show,” said Tucson hip-hop artist Marley B., who said Owens’ efforts boosted the visibility of Tucson’s underground hip-hop community. “There's no pay to play. There's no sort of gatekeeping to get in there.”
“I think that was a bit selfish on my part because I just wanted to bring in some of my favorite people to watch them create,” Owens said. “I knew how important it was to have the space because people like Kathy (Wooldridge) at Skrappy's did that for me when I was younger, and all those places like Vaudeville and Plush and Flycatcher, Heart Five, the places that let us in the doors when I was younger, I kind of felt like we owed some of that to the city.”
Owens said that by closing the public-serving side of the brewery, he and Nixon can cut their average $32,000 monthly business costs by at least $15,000. Owens said there are two years left on their current lease.
Brick Box will be open regular hours — 4 p.m.-midnight Thursdays and Fridays, noon to midnight Saturdays and Sundays — through Nov. 29.
