Jordan microbrewery plan could help revive historic downtown

Even an act of god can't get between Tim Roets and his dream of founding a microbrewery.

The longtime home brewer was weeks away from opening a brewing company in the historic Jordan Brewery building when a landslide caused by the summer rains crushed one of the back walls. Now, four months later, Roets has found a new home for the brewery in the former Scott County Library.

Roets was stunned when the landslide hit, but it didn't take long for him to realize that he needed to find another place for the family-run brewery.

"We ran off to the cabin for a couple weeks and got our heads together. And it became real obvious we had to be here," said Roets, who lives in Chaska. "I mean, after you start working in a community, and start talking to people, and see how excited people are, you just got to keep going."

After the landslide, city officials were eager to make sure the Roets Jordan Brewery Co. stayed in Jordan. They offered up the city-owned library building. Within weeks of the landslide, Roets agreed to take over the old library and the city began ripping out outdated features, such as the dropped ceiling.

Although the firm has a new home, the future of the historic Jordan Brewery building is still in jeopardy.

City officials are weighing whether to spend tens of thousands of dollars to commission an assessment of the costs of securing the hill behind it. And the property owners say they can't afford to pay for the hillside work, which could cost millions of dollars.

A former bank

The new space the city found for the Roets' brewery was built as a bank in 1800s. It served as the Jordan branch of the Scott County library until it moved to a new building not long ago.

The city had been planning to rehab the building and use it as a museum and City Council chambers, but was quick to offer it to Roets instead. Although plans for the museum have been delayed, the city has recently purchased another building that is a potential site.

The brewery will use the first floor of the library as a taproom and run the brewing operation in the basement, pumping beer up through the floor. One pitfall of the new space is the narrow staircases down to the brewing area. Because the halls won't fit anything wider than a few feet, Roets will be installing two unusually small brewing systems, instead of one larger one.

With typical optimism, Roets is even excited about that workaround. With two systems, he will be able to offer a wider beer selection. "It's gonna be an infinite variety!"

Roets still needs to apply for federal, state and city approval of the brewery. But he hopes to start brewing in early 2015 and open the taproom to the public in the spring.

A brewery may seem like an adult space, but Roets — who is running the business with his wife and two twenty-something sons — said he wants the brewery to be a family-friendly gathering place.

"I'm gonna make root beers and ginger ales and funky sodas too," Roets said. "I want the kids to be able to come in here."

For the city …

Jordan city officials see the brewery as part of a larger movement to attract back downtown Jordan residents who usually travel to other communities for entertainment.

"He's a catalyst for the development of downtown," said Tom Nikunen, interim city administrator. "Our hope is that his business will draw other businesses, like restaurants."

Next summer the city will redo the streets downtown, adding wider sidewalks and other features designed to make the city pedestrian friendly. Jordan city planner Laura Holey said that although most of the city's traffic is in the Hwy. 169 area, she gets calls every week from businesses interested in renting space downtown.

"We have a few other businesses that are looking at downtown kind of differently," Holey said. "I think downtown is kind of a missed opportunity that a lot of people haven't recognized."

Roets also believes in the potential of the area. He thinks Jordan is an untapped market for microbreweries, because although the city has young, affluent families interested in going out, they have relatively few options.

"If it wasn't economically feasible, I'd walk away in a minute," said Roets. "The business plan that we're executing here — we think it's a really good plan."

Census data shows the median age in Jordan is 32, nearly 5 years younger than the statewide median age. And households earn an average of $14,000 more per year than people in the rest of the state.

Back to the future

But Roets didn't come to Jordan because the demographics are promising. It's the city's rich brewing history that initially drew him in.

Soon after the area was settled in the mid-19th century, two thriving breweries sprung up. The Jordan Brewery, which was founded in 1866 in the building that suffered the landslide, operated until 1949. When Roets saw the limestone brewery, with caves built into the hillside, he was inspired.

Although Roets has been forced to find a new location for his microbrewery, he still hopes to honor the city's history as a beer-making hub. He already has a large collection of photos of the old Jordan Brewery that he will use to decorate the new space, and he is always eager to talk about the history of brewing.

Roets hasn't been able to lay his hands on any of the original beer recipes used at the Jordan Brewery. But he and his sons brewed up a batch of the type of low-alcohol, light beer the brewery advertised after Prohibition.

When the brewery opens next spring, Roets plans to offer some less traditional beers.

"I will err on the side of lots of selection and change to the lineup," Roets said. "Something from the real friendly, easy to drink sort of beers to some of the wacky stuff. I like making fruit beers. I like using herbs in beers. I like doing Belgian beers. There's a lot of things you can do."

Blocks away meanwhile …

While Roets is moving forward with plans to open a brewery, plans for the building that sparked his idea are at a standstill.

"At this point, I'm not feeling real hopeful," said Barbara Lee, who manages the building. Lee is three years into a 20-year contract to purchase the property from her grandmother, and she expected to rent it out for years to come. But now she says she'd gladly sell the building. "It's just such a big project. There's just no money to fix it, is the problem."

The damage from the landslide was relatively limited — it only crushed one wall. But the entire building had to be closed, and there are no plans to reopen it. None of the damage was covered by insurance, and the building is not eligible for federal funding because it is privately owned.

Lee may be able to find money for the repairs because the building is on the National Register of Historic Places. But the collapsed hillside needs to be stabilized before repairs can be made. No one knows how much that would cost, but it would likely be several million dollars.

The city may be able to secure funding from the state for repairs to the hillside, but must have an assessment of the cost before seeking aid.

The City Council provided $5,000 for an engineering review to ensure there was no ongoing danger, but will need to pay close to $35,000 more for an engineering firm to develop a plan for shoring up the hill. A motion to pay for that plan was introduced at a City Council meeting soon after the collapse, but was tabled.

The council hasn't taken any action since then, and administrator Nikunen said council members are still negotiating internally on whether to fund the review.

Until the city decides whether to fund plans for repairing the hillside, the building sits closed, growing increasingly derelict. Lee said there has been vandalism and at least three break-ins since the building closed.

"It's a historic building," Nikunen said. "Fixing it is in the best interest of the community. The problem is, who's going to put the money into fixing it?"

Dylan Peers McCoy is a Twin Cities based freelance journalist.