New grocery stores highlight the cost and scarcity of Butler County liquor licenses

CRANBERRY TOWNSHIP, Pa. — Gary Sippel has a firsthand understanding of just how expensive and rare liquor licenses are in Butler County.

A few years ago, Sippel, principal of Sippel Enterprises LLC, a company that is building out the Cranberry Springs mixed-use development in Cranberry Township, was able to acquire four of them, dealing one to a Burgatory restaurant at his project, another to the Firebirds Wood Fired Grill there, one to Giant Eagle and most recently to Wegmans Food Markets, which broke ground last week on what will be its first store in the Pittsburgh area.

Now, he wonders if he should’ve kept one.

“I probably should have hung onto the one that we sold to Giant Eagle,” said Sippel, recalling a license he sold to the local grocery chain for a GetGo store elsewhere in Butler County.

As he considers plans to add some more development at Cranberry Springs including potentially more restaurants, Sippel added of his future need for liquor licenses: “They’ll surface somehow.”

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