HEAVY Beer Co. is joining a redevelopment push in Toledo’s UpTown district with a $10 million project to convert a rundown former Ford dealership into a brewpub, food hall, arcade and 500-person concert hall.
HEAVY has received an Ohio Historic Preservation Tax Credit to restore the three-story building at 1301 Adams Street, said HEAVY and Toledo Spirits Co. CEO Andrew Newby.
He said federal and state tax credits would eventually defray about $1.1 million of the $10 million renovation cost.
Mr. Newby, 49, said the UpTown location will be HEAVY’s third in the Toledo area and one of the company’s most ambitious efforts to date. It will be called HEAVY Village.
Architectural plans call for a brewpub and multi-vendor food hall to serve customers for 20 hours per day instead of evenings only, as is the case at HEAVY’s popular first location downtown, at 1301 N. Summit St.
Additionally, he said it will have an arcade to offer entertainment beyond pub drinking and food. The third floor will be outfitted as a concert venue with capacity for 500 patrons.
And HEAVY is planning a rooftop cocktail bar with views of downtown and the neighborhood, Mr. Newby said.
“UpTown is evolving and we wanted to create a multi-use venue with retail, food and entertainment,” he said.
Mr. Newby has set a target date for opening HEAVY Village of late 2024.
The business will be a welcome addition to UpTown, said Ali Drozdowicz, one of five owners of the Quenched & Tempered Brewing Co. taproom located 1210 Jackson, just one block from the HEAVY Village site.
Ms. Drozdowicz said the new entertainment hub will create customer traffic that will benefit the whole neighborhood.
Craft beer lovers, she said, tend to like to hop around to sample the custom brews and ambience of multiple locations when they are out for a good time.
Today, Quenched & Tempered is a bit off the beaten track. It is popular with regulars but requires the curious to have to go out and find it, Ms. Drozdowicz said. It also faced the difficulty of opening in August, 2022, just before the onset of cooler weather caused traffic to slow.
With ample free parking nearby, Quenched & Tempered has plenty of room for newcomers, she said. The company has been brewing and distributing craft beers since 2019.
“This is going to be a vibrant area,” she said.
HEAVY Village is just the latest new development in UpTown.
Among those previously announced are the $38 million renovation of the historic Jefferson Center. The building is being readied as a tech hub and business incubator. But the timing of the opening has been halted by the collapse of its prospective main tenant, Bitwise Industries.
Jupmode, the well-known Toledo company that customizes T-shirts, hats, and other apparel, announced this month that it is moving to the former MedCorp building in UpTown once the building is ready for production and sales in the first quarter of next year.
Coming also is the Village on the Green, a residential project featuring 120 market-rate units, said Brandon Sehlhorst, the city of Toledo’s economic development director.
But perhaps the biggest project on the horizon, one that will tie together the many businesses and residences in the neighborhood, is a $20 million U.S. Department of Transportation grant to completely redo streets, sewers, and sidewalks in the district, Mr. Sehlhorst said. Toledo announced the competitive award last month.
Mr. Sehlhorst said the plan is to turn UpTown into a walkable and bikable neighborhood to encourage new residents, customers, and businesses to come to the district. He said the streetscape downtown along Summit Street would serve as a model.
Work on the infrastructure project, which will cost about $53 million in total, is expected to start in 2026 and run for six years.
UpTown extends northwest from downtown, and its major thoroughfares include Adams and Monroe streets.
Mr. Newby said all the new development in UpTown, including the Department of Transportation award, made the timing right to start the HEAVY Village project. He said he has owned the building since before the pandemic started.
When fully operational, HEAVY Village would employ 40 people, he said. About 20 percent of the $10 million cost would come from public sources and 80 percent from loans and equity.
In addition to the downtown brewpub, Mr. Newby owns HEAVY Wheelhouse, a brewpub and restaurant at the Oak Openings Preserve Metropark in Swanton Township. The company also owns a production location in Toledo.
First Published July 20, 2023, 2:53 p.m.
