Hop Pharm and Harbor Health and Apothecary: Here are the new businesses going into the old Key Bank building in downtown Gig Harbor

May 5, 2021
By Chase Hutchinson

The long vacant Key Bank building at 3216 Judson St. in Gig Harbor has new tenants who are hoping to breathe life back into their corner of downtown.

Conrad Esser is the owner of the recently opened Harbor Health Apothecary and Hop Pharm Taproom. In a release, Esser said he was hoping to bring “much-needed revitalization to a downtown Gig Harbor high traffic corner.”

In an interview with The Gateway, Esser emphasized that the two businesses are distinct from each other while still being part of a collective attempt to bring new energy to an area that had long been quiet.

“The two businesses are two separate businesses and two separate approved tenant spaces. One doesn’t connect to the other and they’re both different corporations,” Esser said. “It’s a really nice improvement for downtown Gig Harbor.”

HISTORIC BUILDING

Esser expressed excitement about the future of downtown after giving a historic building new purpose.

“You have people that are coming downtown utilizing downtown throughout the whole day,” Esser said. “I can tell you that the community really loves what we’ve done here.”

“We opened this business because we felt it was a great location; I love the maritime aspect of downtown. We’ve repurposed a 5,000-square-foot building that was busy for probably fifty years with the community coming to this location as a bank,” Esser said. “We’ve renovated the property. You’ve got a compounding pharmacy on one side and you’ve got a tap room on the other side.”

A compounding pharmacy is a drugstore that both makes and sells prescription medications, often specially tailored to individual patients (for example, liquid versions of medications for patients who cannot swallow pills).

Esser said the project faced challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “Due to the covid virus, we had to wait about nine months to get our certification approved,” Esser said.

Harbor Health and Apothecary takes up most of the previously vacant building, though the taproom has filled in the extra space that also includes an outdoor seating area.

“The downtown Gig Harbor area could use another place for people to enjoy a beer or go have some wine,” Esser said.

Esser’s business partner and chief pharmacist Nick Wyatt said the compounding pharmacy is meant to serve individual people’s needs.

“It’s really more of a hands-on, personal care approach. We really focus on the individual patient,” Wyatt said. “We bridge the gap between what the provider and the patient need and its not available in the marketplace. We create that formulation for them and work with them and build that partnership.”

PUNNY NAME FOR TAPROOM

The original names the team had in mind for the tap room ranged from the Kraken to Riptide, in the hopes of paying tribute to the area’s maritime history. It wasn’t meant to be, as Esser ran into the reality that most of the names for taprooms were already taken, so he had to get creative.

“It’s extremely difficult to get a name these days,” Esser said. “Beer being ‘hop’ and the ‘pharm’ being a play off the pharmacy, that’s how the name Hop Pharm evolved for the tap room.”

Back in 2019, The Gateway reported that Esser was in negotiations with the city over changes to the sidewalks and getting a site plan approved. Esser said it all got completed, though said he wishes he had gotten more support in the project.

“As the owner of the property, I ended up having to put in sidewalks and street lighting,” Esser said. “I wish that the city would’ve been more of a partner in helping with the sidewalks.”

Esser said he had to give up some parking in order to do the sidewalks and said he wished the city would helped defer some of the costs “through a grant or something.”

The future of downtown business is still uncertain, with Pierce County seeing cases soar, vaccination rates lag, and potential further rollbacks in phases. Esser remains optimistic that the business will be able to weather the storm.

“We’re doing quite good business,” Esser said. “We’re being cautious with Pierce County being in Phase 2. The good news is that we have the ability to seat approximately 25-26 people outside.”

The developer is Cannongate Development of Silverdale. The architect on the project is Darrin M. Filand of Gig Harbor.

This article originally appeared in the Peninsula Gateway on May 5, 2021.