Smithfield’s Red Point Taphouse is under new ownership.

Tim Ryan, Nick Hess and Derek Joyner, who in 2021 opened the craft brewery and restaurant in the renovated circa-1929 Red Point service station on South Church Street, confirmed in a statement to The Smithfield Times that they’d sold the business, effective Jan. 20, to Ben and Elen Osmanson.

The Osmansons own six other restaurants spanning the United States’ east to west coasts. In 2023, they bought the Charlotte Hotel and Terra Mare Restaurant in Onancock on Virginia’s Eastern Shore.

The Osmansons – like Ryan, Hess and Joyner – are Isle of Wight County residents. The couple, in addition to their restaurant and hospitality industry holdings, own and operate Serene Tree Apothecary, a one-stop shop for all things herbal operating out of the circa-1826 Atkinson storehouse at 235 Main St.

Ryan cited conflicting demands on the trio’s time as the primary reason for the decision to sell the business, though the trio will retain ownership of the building itself under Red Point Holdings LLC.

Ryan, Hess and Joyner are each involved in careers outside of Red Point – Ryan as co-owner of two real estate-related companies, Hess as owner of Gatling Pointe Yacht Club and Joyner as an orthopedic surgery physician assistant who’s also deeply involved in coaching youth sports teams.

“After almost six years from the start of their rezoning efforts, though a year of construction, most of which they did themselves, and the subsequent demands of operating a restaurant days, night, weekends, and holidays, the team decided it was time to hand over the reins to someone with some fresh energy,” Ryan said.

According to Ryan, who will remain in charge of the restaurant’s brewery operations, current staff members have been invited to stay on and the Osmansons plan to keep the restaurant’s appearance and branding the same. The interior features reclaimed wood salvaged from the former Pierceville homestead on Grace Street before the 1730s-era Dutch colonial farmhouse was demolished in late 2020.

“Their initial intention is to keep things generally going as they are in terms of offerings,” Ryan said. “I know they want to add some new things, but it’s not a wholesale change.”

The change in ownership comes amid an ongoing dispute with the town over a requirement that the business connect to town water.

Ryan told Smithfield’s Planning Commission last year that he and his partners had reluctantly agreed at the time of Red Point’s 2020 rezoning approval to, within two years of opening, connect Red Point to town water, not knowing at the time that it would cost over $30,000 to have town contractors extend the required 2-inch water connection. The business is served by a private well that predates the town’s annexation of the area.

Ryan said the five-figure cost would equate to nearly 100% of Red Point’s 2024 profit margin, which he said had been negatively impacted by the ongoing rehabilitation of the Cypress Creek Bridge. Since last January, the Virginia Department of Transportation has restricted the two-lane bridge connecting downtown Smithfield to the east end of town to a single westbound lane with eastbound traffic diverted via Main and Grace streets to the Route 10 bypass.

The Planning Commission, at its September meeting, had recommended granting Red Point another two-year extension to connect to town water, but the Town Council, in October, voted to reduce the window to 30 days for Ryan to either connect to town water or file for a permanent waiver via a special use permit. Since then, November’s elections have given the council three new members.

When Ryan returned to the Planning Commission in December with his application for the waiver, the commissioners deadlocked 3-3 on the issue and tabled the matter.

One of the three commissioners who’d voted in favor of Red Point’s requested waiver – fellow restaurateur Randy Pack – is no longer on the Planning Commission. His term on the Town Council ended Dec. 31. Mayor Mike Smith, earlier in January, appointed newly elected Councilman Darren Cutler in Pack’s place as the body’s new liaison to the Planning Commission.

The Planning Commission didn’t discuss Red Point’s request at its January meeting. According to Smithfield Community Development and Planning Director Tammie Clary, the matter is scheduled to come back on the agenda as old business during the commission’s Feb. 11 meeting.

That’s one of the reasons Ryan, Hess and Joyner will retain ownership of the building. The trio purchased the property in 2021 after leasing it for nearly two years during the rezoning process.

“We have retained ownership to take the water special use permit through to the final decision,” Ryan said.

While the permit issue “did not cause us to sell the property” the process “has certainly been a drag on us as owners,” he said.