USA, NC: Pitt Street Brewing Co construction works well underway in Greenville

Renovation work at the former Coca-Cola bottling plant on Pitt Street is “well underway” to prepare for the opening of Greenville’s third craft brewery, the Greenville Daily Reflector reported on February 18.

Mike McCarty — a partner in the Pitt Street Brewing Co., 630 S. Pitt St. — said renovations to the building are scheduled to be completed within the next 90 days.

“Everything is going great and construction is well underway,” McCarty said. “We hope to have everything up and ready to go by late spring.”

On February 17, the Pitt Street Brewing Co. received notice that it has received approval for a $45,000 grant through North Carolina’s Rural Economic Development Division Building Reuse Grant program. The program provides grants to local governments to assist businesses with renovating vacant buildings or expanding an existing business.

The company — which will be a full-production brewery with a canning line for regional distribution — will create at least nine full-time jobs with an annual salary averaging $32,000 a year. The business’ partners are investing more than $500,000 in improvements to the property.

“We are really excited that we received this grant from the state,” McCarty said. “We are planning to use it to getting this building ready to brew some beer.”

Since 2013, Greenville’s Office of Economic Development has helped businesses obtain more than $500,000 through the grant program.

Greenville’s Economic Development Liaison Christian Lockamy said the city obtains the grant on behalf of the businesses and provides a 5 percent match to the grant recipient, which is included in the city’s annual budget to promote economic development in Greenville. The city’s matching funds to the Pitt Street Brewing Co. will be $2,250, Lockamy said.

“We are very excited for the Pitt Street Brewing Co.,” Lockamy said. “These guys were competing for this funding against other companies from across North Carolina. They were awarded this grant due to their exceptional business plan and overall renovation project.”

The buildings that are being renovated by grant recipients also increase substantially in value, creating additional revenue for the city in property taxes, Lockamy said. Additional city revenues also will be created through sales taxes at those businesses, he said.

“The city gets its investment back in almost no time,” Lockamy said. “You take a building that has been sitting unused for years and turn it into a business that is providing jobs and services in the community ... that’s what this program was designed to do.”

The Pitt Street Brewing Co. will be the third craft brewery to open in downtown Greenville in the past two years.

Trollingwood Taproom and Brewery, 707 Dickinson Ave., opened in 2015 and is one of the anchor businesses to spur redevelopment efforts along the Dickinson Avenue corridor.

In January, Greenville’s newest brewery — Uptown Brewing Company at 418 Evans St. — opened for business. Uptown Brewing is Greenville’s first full-production brewery and soon will begin canning beer for regional distribution.

McCarty said the Pitt Street brewery is in the process of finalizing its federal permitting, which should be complete about the same time as the renovations to the building.

“We are looking forward to adding to Greenville’s craft beer industry,” he said. “We are working with the other breweries to get the word out about the craft beer scene in Uptown Greenville.”

19 February, 2017