When Norfolk’s City Council approved the permit for the controversial Armed Forces Brewing Company over some neighborhood objections, several members said let the marketplace decide its fate.
It didn’t take long.
A year after opening its doors, Armed Forces is closing, after a raucous launch when hundreds of community members opposed what they said was a divisive business whose marketing glorified violence, threatened LGBTQ people and said those with different views don’t love America.
Early Thursday afternoon, Nicole Couch, the taproom manager, got a call from Alan Beal, the company’s chief executive officer, with the news employees had been expecting. The company had been bleeding red ink for years. A reconfigured board had met that morning and told Beal to “lock it up” and close the Norfolk facility after only 13 months.
Couch, a local beer industry veteran who had worked to revitalize what she called grim taproom attendance after being hired in June, realized she couldn’t tell her staff the news by text. She sent an emergency message saying the taproom would not open that day. Minutes later, they agreed to meet at Smartmouth Brewing in Norfolk that night.
There, she told them they had lost their jobs. She’d hoped Beal would issue an official statement after their phone call, as he’d told her he would in 30 minutes. He didn’t. Employees discovered the news and his statement by checking Facebook during the meeting. They were appalled that Beal was blaming Norfolk residents for the failure.
“There was no thank you (to the staff). It was all woe is me,” she said.
“Our ability to profitably operate in Norfolk was severely affected by the local woke mob – a few individuals in the area who have no love for the traditional American values we hold as a company,” Beal wrote, concluding that the taproom and brewery would go up for sale. “These people spread outright lies about our company, our employees and our shareholders before we even opened our doors.”
But interviews with nine former employees and contractors for Armed Forces suggest that local opposition played a smaller part than Beal’s claims. They said the Norfolk taproom, where customers ebbed and flowed depending upon events, did not reach its revenue potential partly because of the controversy. But Armed Forces ultimately suffered setbacks selling beer, notably losing market share after failing last year to pay Brew Hub, a Florida contract brewery it had been using since before the Norfolk purchase.
“The closing of AFBC had nothing to do with a “woke mob,” former mid-Atlantic sales manager Tim Labbe wrote on Facebook, saying he was part of a team growing sales in seven states. “We had great relationships with the major chain grocery stores in those states as well as big distributors. When Alan (Beal) stopped paying bills and stopped complying with the agreements in place that all dried up.”
Former employees were believers until they weren’t
The stories from former employees are strikingly similar. They joined Armed Forces believing in the mission to support veterans and first responders. They stayed even though paychecks occasionally were late, their suggestions to improve the business were ignored, bills were not paid, some charitable obligations were not met, and key repairs and improvements to the brewing operation languished for weeks because Beal said there was no money. The few employees covered by health insurance paid by the company learned in November it would be canceled on Feb. 1.
Beal, they said, focused more on marketing and luring investors than making the brewery profitable, funding promotions with NASCAR, the Norfolk Tides and numerous other events while improvements and repairs to the brewery languished.
Beal did not respond to a voicemail message or messages sent to two of his Facebook profiles requesting comment.
Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced Armed Forces’ move to Virginia in July 2023, touting $300,000 in incentives. A spokesman for the Virginia Economic Development Partnership said Armed Forces qualified for $24,500 in hiring support, but did not apply for it. It’s not clear if any other incentives were paid. Sean Washington, Norfolk’s head of economic development, said the city did not provide any funding to the company.
As it ramped up the Norfolk operation, the company raised about $8.5 million from more than 10,000 investors who ponied up a minimum of $200 in what was essentially a crowdfunding campaign. Contributors got rewards ranging from stickers to hats, although some former employees who invested said they never arrived. Those investors have no voting rights, and the company says it is uncertain if it will ever issue dividends. The stock cannot be sold on the open market.
Armed Forces suffered a net loss of $1.76 million for the first six months of 2024, according to a recent Securities and Exchange filing. The company lost $2.4 million in 2023. According to the filing, the company had net cash of $12,239 on June 30, 2024, down from an originally unaudited reporting of $381,370 and down from $282,549 on Dec. 31, 2023.
It appears from SEC filings that Armed Forces burned through the majority of cash from investors over two years to cover operating losses.
Failure to pay contractors signals problems
John Galanti, who has worked in beer sales for nearly four decades, came aboard Armed Forces in March 2022 as national sales director. Galanti left the company in July 2024 after learning it pulled back from pricing and promotional agreements with Publix, a chain of 900 stores in Florida, and had failed to pay Brew Hub, a contracting brewery in the state.
“You can’t survive in Florida without having Publix,” he added.
Galanti said he’d heard rumors about the failure to pay and the refusal of Brew Hub to release beer to distributors but there always were excuses. When he confirmed that was the case, he gave notice.
“I didn’t want any part of anything like that,” he said.
He advised the company against purchasing the former O’Connor Brewing facility for $3 million in 2023, far above the $1.86 million assessed value, according to city records.
“I would have gotten something a lot smaller,” Galanti said. “I’ve been doing this 37 years, so my advice was find some small locations of some brewers that were looking to sell. It would have probably been about a quarter of the price of what they paid (for O’Connor). But again, I stayed out of that because they were just like, ‘We’ll handle this part.’”
A $549,000 annual rent
Armed Forces Brewing does not own the former O’Connor property, according to SEC filings. It is owned 72% by a third party, Ironbound AFBC Properties, LLC. Armed Forces has a 10-year lease and an option to purchase after the first year.
The third-party owners include Evan Almeida, listed as a principal in Ironbound. He has a property investment firm in New Jersey and is also an owner of EmpireATM, a company with multimillion-dollar revenues. He and his brother, Michael, are listed as $50,000 to $99,000 investors on the Armed Forces site.
Ironbound, according to city records, is overdue on a $4,600 tax bill and owes nearly $13,000 overall.
According to the SEC filing, Armed Forces’ lease with Ironbound calls for $549,600 payments in 2024 and 2025 with increases after that. Galanti called that rent “an insane amount of money.”
Galanti thinks the company could have been successful by dominating a few grocery store markets rather than opening a taproom and focusing on attracting investors.
“It’s great if you’re trying to get investors, but the bottom line is you have to sell beer because investors can come and go,” he added.
Beal is paid an $87,000 salary. The rent on his Norfolk apartment is covered by the company. He uses a leased company vehicle. He now owns 7% of the voting stock, down from 27.5% according to SEC filings, including an amended one that appeared on Monday reporting the Norfolk closure. He said in his announcement the company would relocate to friendlier territory, but Galanti and others formerly involved with the company said that’s unlikely.
Civil actions filed in Norfolk, Portsmouth and Henrico seek payment of bills, but the brewery’s former employees say the problem is much deeper. A hops provider from the Midwest posted that the company owes him $2,600. Allen Fabijan, who runs an advertising and marketing company, connected with the company following the initial controversy when Armed Forces’ impending arrival in Virginia was announced.
The controversy centered on social media posts by Robert O’Neill, a former board member and brand ambassador, which criticized the Navy for using a drag queen in a recruitment ad, mocked transgender people and refused to wear a mask on an airplane during the COVID-19 pandemic. Shortly after the company’s purchase, he was arrested in a Dallas suburb for public intoxication and misdemeanor assault after a security guard who attempted to help him from a bar to his room told police he called him a racial slur. O’Neill was removed from the company’s website, but later reinstalled.
Fabijan said he often works supporting veterans and first responders so he was eager to partner with Armed Forces.
“I was like, wow, what a great partner this will be for the community because they’re going to give back to the causes that I feel matter,” he said. He orchestrated their opening and did other work, but was only paid a deposit.
“It was always an excuse, another excuse, another excuse. ‘Oh, we’ll get it taken care of,’” Fabijan added. He estimated that Armed Forces owes him about $20,000.
Charity work questions
In a March 2024 press release, Armed Forces reported that a portion of sales were distributed through the AFBC Veterans’ Foundation to organizations “that help homeless veterans, combat PTSD, and address the veteran suicide crisis.”
The latest SEC filing reports that Armed Forces made $176 in charitable donations during the first six months of 2024.
When charity events he proposed began to fall apart, Fabijan started recommending other veteran-owned breweries in the area (Beal is not a veteran).
“I’m one person of many that they screwed over,” Fabijan added. “Do I understand the pushback that was coming from certain members of the community that didn’t want to support the brand? Do I think that it was slightly over the top? Sure. But overall, the issue there wasn’t the community. The issue was that he (Beal) burned the bridges of the people that could help.”
What could have been
Galanti is a religious man and a veteran who is on the board of DDSVets, a nonprofit that provides service dogs to veterans, active-duty military and first responders. He thought Armed Forces handled the LGBTQ+ controversy poorly.
“I’m a big, firm believer in God,” he said. “You accept everybody.”
He saw Armed Forces as a way to merge his passion for beer and helping veterans.
“They actually had a great concept,” he said. “It really is a shame, because it could have really benefited a lot of people, a lot of veterans.”
Couch, a military spouse, stayed through delayed paychecks and denials to fund little things like a $200 bingo set that might improve taproom attendance. She believed the narrative with the neighborhood could be changed by talking face to face and revising the tenor on social media. She grew protective of her team and thought the taproom was turning a corner. The first few days of March yielded revenue equal to the first half of February. She had events – retirements, fundraisers, celebrations of life – scheduled for March and April.
Taproom employees, including her, have been told they will not receive their final paychecks. They have not heard directly from Beal and they have not been let into the brewery to get their personal items.
They deserved better, she said. “We had a really cool team,” Couch added. “We had a really great team.”
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From last year to now, Virginia raised teacher pay by an average of $3,000. Still, the commonwealth’s average pay rate for educators remains stagnant compared to other states, according to the latest salary report published by the National Education Association.
The commonwealth dropped by one spot to 26th, paying teachers an average of $66,327, an increase from a year ago. Virginia’s average teacher pay is $5,703 below the national average of $72,030, the NEA report states.
Education leaders and lawmakers in the commonwealth said inflation and investments are some of the factors contributing to mixed results in the national salary report.
“Clearly (the report) shows that we have made good improvement in recent years, and we have a long way to go,” said House Education Committee Chair Sam Rasoul, D-Roanoke.
Rasoul admitted that the commonwealth is thousands of dollars below the national teacher pay average, “but when we started this journey a few years ago, we were in the bottom third of states, and so we’re approaching where we need to be.”
The Virginia Education Association (VEA), representing the largest group of K-12 teachers in the commonwealth, said that while the national data shows gains have been made in Virginia, pre-kindergarten to higher education teachers are still not making enough to support themselves after being adjusted for inflation.
According to VEA, the average public school teacher salary increased by 3% from the previous year, but when adjusted for inflation, teachers made only $108 more.
“While it might look like teachers are getting support, they are actually losing money, which has a direct impact on student learning,” VEA said.
While recognizing recent gains, VEA president Carol Bauer said Virginia’s teachers are “still losing economic ground” while schools continue weathering the state’s education staffing shortages.
“True historic investment means decisively closing salary gaps, adequately funding schools, and ensuring every classroom has a qualified teacher. Virginia must commit to real, sustained investments to attract and retain educators, rather than relying on incremental gains that barely keep pace with inflation,” Bauer said.
What can Virginia do now?
Virginia has an opportunity to boost educator pay even more, after the General Assembly recommended changes to the state budget.
This week, Gov. Glenn Youngkin will decide whether to support lawmakers’ budget proposal to provide bonuses to teachers and lift a cap on state funding for non-instructional school staff positions. This would give school divisions greater flexibility to hire the staff they need without being “restricted” by outdated student-to-staff ratios.
In 2009, during the Great Recession, lawmakers initiated the cap to reduce state spending on non-instructional school staff positions, including central office and administrative, technical, clerical, maintenance, and instructional support positions.
The governor’s office did not immediately respond to comment on the report. However, in the governor’s budget recommendations in March, Youngkin wrote that Virginia has raised teacher pay by 18% over the last three years.
The budget amendments now being considered by the governor contain $166 million more for public education, including $84.7 million to raise the cap.
Last year, state lawmakers formed a joint committee to work on overhauling the Standards of Quality (SOQ), the state’s funding formula determining the financial needs of school divisions, after a state study group found local governments have been shouldering a disproportionate share of K-12 education costs compared to the state’s contributions.
Lawmakers arranged for the state and localities to pay an even split of contributions in 1972, but they changed it in 1993, urging localities to start paying for K-12 fringe benefits.
According to the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission, the state’s share was established at 55%, while localities paid 45%.
What’s next?
House Education Committee Vice Chair Shelly Simonds, D-Newport News, carried the support cap bill and budget language to support non-instructional positions.
As a former teacher and school board member, Simonds said a core issue her legislation will address is the administration’s prioritized focus on overhauling testing and accountability measures — part of the administration’s efforts to combat learning loss and raise student testing scores — instead of recruiting and maintaining teachers.
Simonds said some ways to make teaching the best job in Virginia could involve creating competitive pay, treating educators as professionals in the school buildings, and offering maternity leave, professional development and planning periods to collaborate with colleagues.
“The only thing that has been really proven to improve education is highly qualified teachers,” Simonds said. “Having a highly qualified teacher in every classroom is the way we move the needle on test scores for our children.”
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Virginia Mercury is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Virginia Mercury maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Samantha Willis for questions: info@virginiamercury.com.
Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.
Political Bias Rating: Center-Left
The content focuses on advocating for higher teacher pay and increased public school funding, highlighting the challenges teachers face with current salaries lagging behind the national average and inflation. It presents perspectives from education advocates and Democratic lawmakers supportive of investing more in public education. While recognizing some progress, the tone calls for more substantial government commitment, aligning with generally progressive stances on public education funding and labor support. The article maintains a factual and policy-oriented approach without extreme rhetoric, situating it in the center-left range.
www.youtube.com – 13News Now – 2025-04-30 14:54:32
SUMMARY: I’m 13 News Now meteorologist Evan Stewart. It’s Wednesday, April 30th, with warm temperatures in the 80s across Hampton Roads and Eastern Shore, over 10° above average. A frontal boundary near North Carolina could trigger isolated showers and thunderstorms later today and into the evening. While severe weather is impacting Texas and nearby areas with tornado risks, Hampton Roads faces a low, level one risk for isolated strong storms. Thursday remains warm with a slight 20% rain chance, and Friday brings more late-day showers and storms. A slow-moving front will increase weekend rain chances, possibly lingering into early next week with cooler weather.
There will be several chances for rain showers and potentially even storms through the weekend.
www.thecentersquare.com – By Shirleen Guerra | The Center Square – (The Center Square – ) 2025-04-30 12:55:00
(The Center Square) – Virginia just logged one of the sharpest drops in fentanyl deaths in the country — down 44% from last year and nearly cut in half since 2021—Gov. Glenn Youngkin says it’s proof his crackdown is working.
The administration credits everything from drug seizures to tougher laws on dealers, plus a massive naloxone rollout. “Overdose deaths skyrocketed across America and in Virginia, driven primarily by illicit fentanyl flowing across our southern border. With an average of five dying Virginians each day, in 2022, we launched a comprehensive effort to stop the scourge of fentanyl, it’s working, and Virginia is leading,” said Youngkin.
He also tied the drop to border enforcement, echoing President Trump’s argument that immigration policy is key to stopping fentanyl from entering the U.S.
“Our approach stands on four principles: interrupt the drug trade, enhance penalties for drug dealers, educate people about the dangers of fentanyl, and equip them to save the life of someone in crisis,” said Youngkin in astatement.
According to the Virginia Department of Health, fatal overdoses across all substances fell by34.1% in 2024compared to the year before — the sharpest drop since the epidemic peaked in 2021.
Trump’s recent moves include a new order cracking down on sanctuary cities, more troops at the southern border and a pledge to ramp up deportations.
“We have turned the tide in this battle and must now redouble our efforts to build on our success,” said Dr. Colin Greene, Special Advisor on Opioid Response.
In Virginia, Youngkin’s team points to several key efforts behind the numbers. Operation FREE, a joint law enforcement initiative, has seized enough fentanyl to kill every Virginian ten times over, according to the administration. The commonwealth also banned pill presses, expanded penalties for dealers, and now requires schools to notify parents when student overdoses happen.
Since 2022, nearly 400,000 doses of naloxone have been distributed statewide, and almost 100,000 Virginians have been trained to use it. First Lady Suzanne Youngkin’s “It Only Takes One” campaign is also part of the strategy — aimed at raising awareness among families, schools and local communities.
Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.
Political Bias Rating: Center-Right
The article presents a clear ideological perspective, with a tone that strongly supports Governor Glenn Youngkin’s policies on combating fentanyl deaths. It emphasizes the success of Youngkin’s efforts, such as drug seizures, tougher laws, and border enforcement, which aligns with conservative viewpoints, particularly regarding immigration policy and law enforcement. The framing of the issue—highlighting Youngkin’s leadership and drawing connections to President Trump’s immigration stance—reinforces a right-leaning narrative, suggesting that tougher border control is key to solving the fentanyl crisis. The article does not present significant counterpoints or explore opposing viewpoints on these measures, which could balance the coverage. Overall, the content reflects a pro-administration stance, particularly aligning with the policies of the Republican Party.
