7 Brew Coffee opens in Viera with expansion plans in Eau Gallie, Suntree, Merritt Island
Last month, 7 Brew Coffee opened its first-in-Florida double-drive-thru beverage stand in downtown Melbourne — launching an ambitious campaign to build roughly 165 locations from Titusville to Key West within the next five to seven years.
And about 20 of those coffee stands may be built in Brevard County, said Shey Anderson, a JM Real Estate licensed commercial agent.
7 Brew Coffee opened its second Florida stand in Viera on Monday, offering an array of coffee beverages, infused energy drinks, smoothies, teas and more. After rainfall relented Friday morning, company officials gathered for a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the growing chain's new drive-thru on Murrell Road.
"It's been well-received by the community. Both Melbourne and Viera have really embraced what we're trying to do," said Jamie Hill, the franchisee of the Melbourne and Viera coffee stands.
"They give us a chance — and then we have to seal the deal, right? It's our job to deliver," Hill said.
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About 100 combined employees work at the Melbourne and Viera coffee stands, Hill said. By late summer, 7 Brew Coffee officials plan to build and open three more Space Coast stores in Eau Gallie, Suntree and Merritt Island, Anderson said. Brief details on locations:
Eau Gallie: The vacant J&S Cyclery site next to the new Tomahawk Robotics facility, just southeast of the intersection of U.S. 1 and Eau Gallie Boulevard.
Suntree: An undeveloped lot on Wickham Road near Fresh Market, just south of Jordan Blass Drive.
Merritt Island: A vacant property next to the Brevard County service complex on North Courtenay Parkway, just south of State Road 528.
"The county's just so large. Each area can get a couple stores, and they're still far enough apart. The big thing is just to be convenient for people: where are they going to work, making sure it's the easiest possible access for people to get in and out of," Anderson said.
7 Brew Coffee debuted with a coffee stand in February 2017 in Rogers, Arkansas. The company website now lists 45 locations nationwide, up from 13 in May.
The downtown Melbourne coffee stand is located next door to Wawa, just northeast of the intersection of U.S. 1 and U.S. 192. A ribbon-cutting ceremony took place Dec. 12.
Hill is chief operating officer of Transcendent Brands, a Westborough, Massachusetts, corporation that has secured 7 Brew Coffee franchise rights to develop stores from Brevard southward along Florida's East Coast. He said a Crestview stand should be the third to open in Florida, followed by locations in Jacksonville and West Palm Beach.
Gabe Moore, a 7 Brew Coffee franchise coach, said his chain's brand recognition remains "in the infancy stage" of its aggressive growth plan. Last week, he said employees handed out 1,500 to 2,000 free energy drinks and coffee beverages at 106 businesses across the Viera area to introduce the company.
The Viera 7 Brew Coffee hours of operation are 5:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 5:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday. The address is 5450 Murrell Road, in the Winn-Dixie-anchored Village Center shopping complex just north of Viera Boulevard.
To mark the grand opening, the Viera location will give out free medium drinks all day Saturday, Jan. 14. Then on Jan. 28, customers will receive a free 7 Brew "swag" item, such as a T-shirt, while supplies last.
Rick Neale is the South Brevard Watchdog Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY (for more of his stories, click here.) Contact Neale at 321-242-3638 or rneale@floridatoday.com. Twitter: @RickNeale1
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This article originally appeared on Florida Today: 7 Brew Coffee opening in Viera, Eau Gallie, Suntree, Merritt Island
