Barefield Development Corp. might renovate a landmark in Pottsville - the former D.G. Yuengling & Son Creamery at Mahantongo and Fifth streets.
If the nonprofit group from Pottsville can find a way to secure at least $8 million in funding, it will work with Yuengling to convert the time-worn, red-brick building that has been closed for more than two decades into apartments for the elderly and commercial space, Barefield CEO Craig S.L. Shields said Tuesday.
"We'd like to make the lower floor retail commercial space for the Yuengling brewery for, possibly, a brew pub, and on the upper floors, we'd like to build 25 apartments for the elderly," Shields said.
"That seems like it would be a good use of that space. It could be good for the community as a whole," said Amy S. Burkhart, executive director of Pottsville Area Development Corp.
"I think it would be a great move. It's really a cornerstone building in our community and I'd love to see it brought back to life. I know the city would be very supportive of whatever Craig and the Yuengling family would want to do," City Administrator Thomas A. Palamar said.
"I believe the superstructure is good but the rest of the property is going to require a great deal of work. It would be a major undertaking for anybody that does it," said Donald J. Chescavage, city code enforcement officer.
Shields said Yuengling President Richard J. "Dick" Yuengling gave him a key to the creamery to explore the site and options for its development.
"To do a total cleanup and gutting and to rehab it to brand new, it would be at least $8 million. It might take us two or three years just to get that kind of money together," Shields said.
If Barefield fails to find the funding, Shields said Yuengling may consider tearing the building down.
"That's probably the route we don't want to see it go. But for a businessman, if you look at it dollar for dollar for rehabbing it versus taking it down, the smartest thing probably would be to remove it. It might create some parking that would compliment Yuengling's brewery tours," Chesavage said.
"I figured that could be the future of the building if no one else could find a use for it. It's a large building. There are limited uses for a building like that and it's been vacant so long because there aren't a lot of viable uses for it, and you figure if someone with resources and access to money can't come in and turn it around, demolition is probably the only other option," Palamar said.
Yuengling could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
Established in 2001, Barefield is a nonprofit development group that has acquired and restored more than 30 Pottsville properties. While it operates the Necho Allen building - an apartment complex for the elderly and disabled - tax free, its other properties pay taxes to the city, county and school board.
Barefield recently received $3.2 million in a competitive tax-credit program through the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency, Harrisburg, to renovate the former Alpha Mills knitting mill at 317 1/2 N. Ninth St. in Pottsville. It will become "Barefield Mills" and will include 11 apartments for the elderly, a new elevator and a gym.
Explaining the tax-credit program, Shields said, "it's like a grant but it's not called a grant."
"The Tax Credit Program does not provide loans or grants but rather a tax incentive to owners of affordable rental housing. A developer markets or 'syndicates' the credits allocated to the development to investors whose contributions are used as equity in the development's financing plan," according to the website for the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency.
Construction will begin later this year and Grimm Construction, Waymart, Wayne County, is the general contractor.
"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.
This 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 parking lot behind it that would accommodate 20 vehicles, Shields said.
The factory closed in 1985. Yuengling donated the property to St. Patrick 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.
The last time a development group made an effort to renovate the Yuengling Creamery was in 2007. Urban Edge from Quakertown had signed a tentative agreement to buy the building with plans to convert it into 18 condominiums and a restaurant, but the group was unable to find the funding.