Greensboro Receives $500,000 Grant to Aid in Brewery Financing

 

Greensboro Receives $500,000 Grant to Aid in Brewery Financing

Lake Country Brewing Coming to Downtown

(June 19, 2015 – Greensboro, GA)  Greensboro will soon welcome Lake Country Brewing to its downtown thanks to financing awarded by the Georgia Department of Community Affairs. 

The City of Greensboro was awarded a $500,000 Redevelopment Fund Grant from the Georgia Department of Community Affairs.  The funds will be allocated to the Greensboro Downtown Development Authority (DDA) and provided as a low-interest loan to Lake Country Brewing.  As loan payments are made back to the DDA, the funds may be used to make additional low-interest loans to future business start-ups in the downtown. 

“The City of Greensboro is happy to assist in bringing this exciting new business to downtown,” comments Greensboro Mayor Glenn Wright. “Our city is committed to attracting investment and encouraging economic growth.”

Greensboro’s Downtown Development Authority set its sights on recruiting a brewery several years ago and partnered with developers John and Nathan McGarity to push the project forward.

Lake Country Brewing will occupy the former Chero Cola building on West Street near the city’s old train depot.  The building’s unique history as a cola bottling facility spurred the idea that perhaps it could be used for a modern production brewery.

“Breweries are creating exciting spaces in downtowns across the country,” explains Greensboro’s Main Street Director, Kendrick Ward.  “After visiting several breweries in North Carolina, I thought that something similar would be perfect for downtown Greensboro.”


“The idea of a brewery in Greensboro really took hold,” says developer Nathan McGarity.  “The more we learned about the business of breweries, the more excited we got about developing a brewery in Greensboro.”

Lake Country Brewing will operate under the direction of master brewer, Taylor Lamm.  Lamm, a native of Augusta, Georgia, began home brewing as a hobby and went on to study beer making at the World Brewing Academy in Chicago, Illinois and Munich, Germany.  He has worked as a brewer at Triangle Brewing Company in Durham, North Carolina and Brewery 85 in Greenville, South Carolina.  

“Finding Taylor to come on board as the brewer for Lake Country Brewing put the final piece of the puzzle together for us,” explains McGarity.

The 11,000 square foot Chero Cola building was built around 1900 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.  The building served as storage space for finished product produced by the Mary Leila Cotton Mill and later as the Greensboro Electric Bottling Company and the Chero Cola Bottling Company.  The building is currently in a state of deterioration after years of neglect.

“I can’t think of a better way to bring about the reuse of the Chero Cola Building than Lake Country Brewing,” explains Cail Hammons, the city’s Community Development Director.  “It is exciting to see a project that will preserve one of our city’s historic structures and add an exciting new destination for tourists to the lake area.”

The Lake Country Brewing project will bring a total investment of more than $2 million to downtown Greensboro.  In addition to functioning as a production facility, Lake Country Brewing will feature a tasting room, brewery tours, and an outdoor patio space for small events.

Developers plan to break ground on the project later this summer.