D.G. Yuengling & Son Inc., Pottsville, recently rejected a plan by the nonprofit Barefield Development Corp. to renovate a former ice cream factory into apartments for the elderly, Barefield CEO Craig S.L. Shields said Monday.
"This was about two weeks ago. They didn't really give me a reason. They just said they're going a different direction," Shields said Monday.
In May 2012, Barefield and Yuengling were in talks to develop the time-worn, red-brick building at Fifth and Mahantongo streets. Yuengling President Richard J. "Dick" Yuengling had given Shields a key to the creamery to explore the site and options for its development and Shields was working to secure more than $8 million in funding for the project.
"We presented an option to Mr. Yuengling to build 25 apartments for the elderly and a brew pub there," Shields said.
Yuengling representatives could not be reached for comment Monday.
"America's Oldest Brewery" built the Yuengling Creamery, an ice cream factory, in 1920 in response to Prohibition to make up for lost beer sales.
The concrete and steel structure was constructed on the Fifth Street slope. The side bordering Mahantongo Street is two stories high and the side bordering West Norwegian is four stories high.
It's a 40,000-square-foot building and has a parking lot behind it that would accommodate 20 vehicles, Shields said.
The factory closed in 1985. Yuengling donated the property to St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Church, Pottsville, and the church sold it to Smith & Smith Contracting, which used it for storage. Then, in the mid-1990s, Yuengling bought the building back for about $125,000.