Water Street Brewing Company was officially introduced to the Planning Commission at their latest meeting, with plans to return for official approval next month. P-J file photo

The plans for two city residents to open the Water Street Brewing Company at 137 Water St. are continuing.

Jake Berg and Chase Churchill have taken the next steps for the project by introducing the project to the city Planning Commission this week. Churchill has owned the property for around 10 years, keeping it vacant and using it for storage as other projects didn’t work out. Berg, Churchill and a few others then began to think about how to develop it further.

“Something that has always been a passion of mine’s and Jake’s is brewing beer for a very long time,” Churchill said. “So the idea to have a brewery has come along. We’ve gone through the numbers and worked with several advisors who are familiar with opening and starting brewing companies. We’ve got an advisor who just got hired by a brewery in New Jersey, so he’s also a great advisor to us there.”

The game plan is to open a manufacturing facility to manufacture beer on a small scale to also be sold and consumed on the premises. Churchill added that they feel this is a good location for this type of business as well.

“As you know there is a little bit of development going on in the area with some other projects and we like the momentum we see there,” Churchill said. “We feel this could help be a catalyst to continue to push that area to see more traffic and see better traffic, the kind of traffic we want to see down there.”

Churchill described the facility itself as having “great bones” with little work to be done to bring it up to speed with what they are trying to do for the project. He added a lot of their architects and those involved in the planning have said it will not be too hard to get the facility to where they need it to be. Another big part of the project is the big outdoor space behind the building, which Churchill said to his knowledge there is no other facility near it that has that.

“We’d like to play very strongly on the Chadakoin and River Walk and eventually if we can work with the city to connect to the River Walk and try to bring traffic in,” Churchill said.

It was confirmed to the Planning Commission that the Chadakoin River sits right behind the facility. The plan is to be able to play on the outdoor space, which is about two acres in size. The space has the river bordering it on two sides with fencing on the other two to keep it separate from the next door manufacturing business also owned by Churchill, and the road, to provide a safe environment. Churchill added there is an extensive parking area inside the fence.

Other future plans include a space for bands and music and to provide some food, though Churchill said they will not be a restaurant and are really focused on being a brewery. Churchill shared some pictures of the concept of what the inside will look like, saying that they also hope to provide a space for families and children to come as well. Churchill also shared with the Planning Commission the overall plans of the building, and discussed the estimated start up costs, which Berg said they are shooting a little high for just in case. The Planning Commission asked about what they plan to have on tap and the potential for distribution, which the pair said is not in the plans right now but could potentially still happen at some point if successful, being mostly focused on being a tourism venue.

Connections to the River Walk were then discussed for both Water Street Brewing and other projects going on in the area, along with zoning, the previous tenants and what happened with the last brewery there, and the project timeline. Right now, Churchill said the hope is after they return to the Planning Commission next month for official approval to be able to move things along quickly and have construction completed by early spring. The price was discussed a little bit again, and Churchill added that while they are shooting high so far they seem to be OK with where they are at price wise, which is not something they always hear with these types of projects, but something that is also helped by the building still being in good shape. They have also secured loans from the Jamestown Local Development Corporation, M&T Bank and they are also working with the IDA.

Architectural and site plans and environmental aspects are underway, with the plan to have everything set by the Planning Commission in December. Churchill welcomed any questions or feedback from the commission and community.

“This is going to be fun, and I think it will be profitable and a really good catalyst to see something positive down in that area and hopefully this is something that will really benefit the community long term,” Churchill said. “We’re going to create some jobs with it … off the get-go from day one probably at least 10 jobs starting out and then maybe 15 up to 20 depending on how the flow is.”

Churchill said the hope is to also promote some other small community breweries as well, with theirs being on tap at other places too, and Berg added they will hopefully be collaborating with some others and expanding to other breweries in other cities for collaboration. A detailed plot plan will come to the Planning Commission soon, along with environmental plans to not disturb the area and habitat of animals such as the turtles that live in the river, and the project will be presented for official approval at their next meeting.