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Pittsburg pours $1.4 million more into brewery project

Post Date:12/22/2009

City eNews Release: Tuesday, December 22, 2009

CC Times Articles posted on 12/22/09.

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Pittsburg pours $1.4 million more into brewery project

By Paul Burgarino
Contra Costa Times
Posted: 12/21/2009 10:11:31 PM PST
Updated: 12/22/2009 01:21:37 PM PST

Pittsburg leaders once again decided to tap into city funds to complete turning a historic downtown building into a brewery.

The Pittsburg City Council this week agreed to spend close to $1.4 million in additional redevelopment money to complete retrofitting and floor work necessary to house a brewery and tasting room.

E.J. Phair Brewing Co. has been working to turn the property at 190 E. Third Street into its main brewery headquarters since 2006. Construction on the project has been hampered by unforeseen retrofitting complications and climbing costs. In November 2008, Pittsburg leaders put $1.77 million toward the project for retrofit work.

All told, the Redevelopment Agency will have spent $6.5 million since 2006 on property acquisition, structural and seismic retrofitting and tenant improvements.

"I will not vote yes to any changes to this agreement again — period," Councilwoman Nancy Parent said at Monday's council meeting.

This is the last time Pittsburg will put money toward the project, City Manager Marc Grisham said Tuesday, adding he fully expects to get a business up and running.

The amended lease agreement will fund all brewery and tasting room construction costs, including fees, permits, architecture and engineering costs and installation of a hydraulic lift, Grisham said.

The agreement also says Pittsburg will lend E.J. Phair $330,000 for purchasing equipment such as storage tanks that the company must pay back with 3 percent interest after two years.

Owner J.J. Phair plans to open a restaurant at the Liberty Hotel across the street while construction is completed on the brewery and tasting room. Phair, who named the company after his grandfather, has waited to open the restaurant at the Liberty until issues are resolved with the brewery project, and hopes to open in two to three months.

Though a full-scale restaurant wasn't found to be feasible at the brewery building, Phair is still required to invest at least $125,000 in additional improvements to the site. It had been $800,000 in the previous agreement but was reduced because the restaurant is going into the Liberty Hotel, Grisham said.

"We thought it was important for the building to be back open, so we saw it as situation that could work," he said.

Though the project has been scaled back, both J.J. Phair and Grisham expressed optimism the deal could finally work to everyone's benefit.

"I've been let down a little bit in this process before, but I'm pretty optimistic this will get the ball going," Phair said. "Hopefully, we don't hit any more snafus."

Reach Paul Burgarino at 925-779-7164. Follow him at Twitter.com/pittsburgarino.

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