Press Release

August 8, 2023

10:00 am MST

Two current aLocal clients, the Tonto Apache Tribe and
Heritage Distilling Company, have announced their plans for a new venture to develop Arizona’s first Tribally owned and operated distillery on Native land. As part of the Apache Corners development, this venture will anchor the entertainment district of Apache Corners and provide a first class destination for the region. aLocal has completed initial diligence and serves as the developer of the estimated $200 million multi-year investment. Eric S. Trevan, Ph.D., President of aLocal, shared “We let data drive our recommendations. Based on our analytics, Apache Corners will provide immense benefits and positive impacts the economy. We are proud to support economic progress for the Tonto Apache nation and the entire regional economy.”

Heritage Distilling Company, Inc. (“HDC” or “Heritage”), a
leading craft distiller of innovative premium brands, announced the partnership with the Tonto Apache Tribe to develop a spirits distillery and tasting room adjacent to Mazatzal Hotel & Casino. The distillery will produce and serve both Heritage’s portfolio of award-winning spirits, as well as exclusive Tonto Apache created brands, crafted to reflect tribal flavors and the local region.

“We have spent considerable time with the team from Heritage and we have toured their facilities in the Pacific Northwest. After seeing them help to change the federal law to make this a legal activity for Tribes across the U.S., we are excited to open a tribally-owned distillery in partnership with them harnessing their experience, expertise and top-level reputation in the craft spirits space,” said Chairman Calvin Johnson. “We will be the first Heritage Distilling location in the southwest and we are excited to offer this new amenity to our current patrons and the next generation of patrons we know are coming to the Mazatzal Hotel & Casino and to our new Apache Corners development.”

“Spirits production and sales is the next major source of financial growth for tribes. With more than 524 tribal casinos in operation, along with their hotels, golf courses, arenas, resorts, and retail spaces that sell adult beverages, distilling and spirits production is the next logical extension of their development” said Justin Stiefel, Heritage Co-founder. “When fuel and cigarette taxes decline from those industries becoming less viable in the coming years, and the need to attract new patrons to casinos as consumers shift their habits away from beer and wine into spirits, the Tribal Beverage Network’s goal is to help tribes grow their local economies and allow them to offset those shifts.”

Tonto Apache Tribe

Tonto Apache is a Federally Recognized Sovereign Nation that shares borders with Payson, Arizona. The nation has multiple business ventures such as the Mazatlán Hotel and Casino, Tonto Apache Market, Smoke Shop, Tonto Apache Gym and Tonto Apache Healthcare.

Heritage Distilling, Inc.

Heritage Distilling Company, Inc.®, currently a subsidiary of Heritage Distilling Holding Company, Inc., was founded in 2011 by Justin and Jennifer Stiefel. Heritage is among the premier independent craft spirits distilleries in the United States offering a variety of whiskeys, vodkas, gins, and rums produced mainly from local, sustainably sourced ingredients. Heritage has been the most awarded craft distillery in North America by the American Distilling Institute for the past ten years out of more than 2,600 craft distilleries. To accelerate its national wholesale distribution growth strategy, Heritage founded the Tribal Beverage Network (TBN) to collaborate
with Native American tribes and develop Heritage-branded distilleries, brands, and tasting rooms and to develop brands unique to the tribes, to serve patrons of tribal casinos and entertainment venues, creating compelling social and economic benefits for participating tribal communities while allowing the tribes another channel through which to exercise tribal sovereignty.

Apache Corners

Apache Corners is a multi-year community and economic planning effort by the Tonto Apache Tribal Nation. Beginning in 2020, Tonto Apache focused on what economic opportunities existed that would benefit their nation’s economy and benefit the region. Approximately 75 acres on the reservation will be used to build the future Tonto Apache economy (including trust land on the east and west sides of A-87) is slated for development with an effort to capture dollars leaking outside the economy and stimulate not only the Tonto Apache economy but the entire region. The total development is slated for a mixed-use approach focused on building an economy from their initial businesses with the Tonto Apache government, Mazatlán Casino and Hotel, Convenience Store and Tire Shop. Future developments in the first phase will include an entertainment district with a distillery and additional restaurants, two convenience stores, a family entertainment center and infrastructure improvements. Additional developments will focus on a health center, training and educational partnership, grocery store, cannabis dispensary, warehousing, and light manufacturing. The plan is to connect parcels on the east and west side of A-87 through finding ways for pedestrian safety, traffic calming and efficiency improvements.

Phase 1 Economic Impacts

• Economic Impact $89.2MM
• Employment 1,043 New Jobs
• New Wages $30.5MM Annually
• Regional Annual Tax Impact $9.1MM
  

aLocal

aLocal is a provider of high-end AI econometric analytics used to drive economic decisions of communities, government and business. A leader in providing AI market and economic demand solutions, aLocal is moving into additional analytical forecasting; using economic, community and financial intelligence.

Focused on equity, aLocal uses netEI solutions using dynamic output of business intelligence, economic impact and community data.

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