USA, NY: Former fire station in downtown Mount Vernon to be transformed into a brewery

A group of local investors are moving to transform a former fire station in downtown Mount Vernon into a fully-fledged brewery, The Gazette reported on November 29.

They hope to renovate and reopen the 1969 building as The Old Fire Station, a six-tank brewery with roughly 4,500 square feet, by June 2025.

Mount Vernon is “a destination place people love to come to. There’s just a need for a large space to hold more people and to enhance existing businesses that are here,” said Meridith Hoffman, an Iowa Realty Realtor and partner in the new business that originated with her idea. “There isn’t anything like it around town. It’s something that people enjoy … having in their community.”

Hoffman, who acquired the building from the City of Mount Vernon in 2018 as the city contemplated tearing it down, said the new brewery will help embrace and revitalize the building’s character, history and charm at 217 First St. W. The building has been vacant since the Mount Vernon Fire Department relocated to Second Avenue SW.

“It’s just a neat old building, and it’s loved within the city,” Hoffman said. “I think people just wanted to see something done with it.”

It’s the first brewery in which partners Hoffman, Darin Luneckas and his wife, Jamie Luneckas, have been involved.

“For Mount Vernon, this will be great — it’ll enhance businesses in town,” said Darin Luneckas, a personal injury lawyer with Luneckas Law, in Cedar Rapids. “(Mount Vernon has) 14 events a year — it will be a good draw to have that.”

The project, in the works for five years, was awarded a $100,000 Main Street Challenge Iowa grant on Nov. 9 by the Iowa Economic Development Authority — one of just 10 communities receiving a collective $925,000 to revitalize downtowns across the state. Estimated total cost of the 10 projects awarded the competitive matching grants tallies more than $3.5 million.

“Each of these projects represents growing momentum for downtown and community revitalization,” said Michael Wagler, state coordinator for the Main Street Iowa program. “This investment in catalytic projects across Iowa will have significant economic impact and help strengthen local creative place-making efforts.”

01 December, 2023