Video by J. Albert Diaz

Jose Mallea set out in 2012 to open a brewery in Miami's Little Havana neighborhood, but the city had yet to craft its zoning regulations for beer makers.

Instead, he opened Biscayne Bay Brewing Co. in Doral, which allows manufacturing with dual industrial-retail uses — an ideal recipe for breweries.

"We spoke with Miami and it said, 'It's going to be difficult for you to get the manufacturing and commercial retail space,' " Mallea said. "It's a very unique process to craft beer. A city that does manufacturing will get it because they deal with someone who produces medical goods or other food products, so they understand some of that."

Mallea's hunt for a home illustrates one of the many hurdles faced by the burgeoning beer-brewing industry. Beyond location, they struggle to find the right real estate at affordable prices.

Breweries need at least 18-foot ceilings to make room for giant tanks and sturdy floors to handle the weight. They can't afford standard retail rents since they normally serve only beer and possibly bite-sized snacks.

Rafael Romero.

"They are relatively difficult deals to do only because a brewery is not able to pay the kind of rents for the most part that some of these restaurants with full liquor are able to pay," said Rafael Romero, senior vice president at JLL in Miami.

Jonathan Carter, executive managing director of retail services at

Jonathan D. Carter.

Colliers International in Miami, said, "The biggest issue breweries face is that the industrial production facility takes up space for which they want to pay a lower industrial rent as opposed to a retail rent."

This means breweries often settle for something others don't want. Just ask 26° Brewing Co.

"Oh, man. It took us nearly a year to find our space," said Greg Lieberman, co-founder and co-owner. "It took us probably longer than it took us to build the space."

In 2015, 26° Brewing found a shuttered Bealls clothing and home goods store near the Intracoastal Waterway in Pompano Beach. The 21,000-square-foot property at 2600 E. Atlantic Blvd. previously was a Winn-Dixie supermarket, which positioned the space well for a brewery since it already had high ceilings and an open floor plan.

As a bonus, the brewery secured below-market rents.

"Part of it was the fact that the building was old. We had to put a lot of money into renovating it," Lieberman said. "I think they were having a hard time renting the unit for whatever reason. It's a large space. They didn't want to subdivide it I don't think. We were in a position to negotiate."

Lieberman, who declined to disclose his rent, said he and his project partners did plumbing, electrical and air-conditioning work.