See inside the old Hamm’s brewery, as a developer plots the St. Paul landmark’s next chapter

After almost 30 years of abandonment, paint peels from the ceilings and the concrete floors are crumbling in the still-empty parts of the Hamm’s brewery complex in St. Paul.

St. Paul has spent decades trying to do something with the sprawling red brick brewery complex — most of which was built in the early 20th century — just off Payne Avenue on the city’s East Side. Redevelopment attempts have resulted in years of stops and starts, partners in and out, businesses opening and closing.

But now St. Paul developer JB Vang is getting ready to bring apartments and shopping to the former brewery, hoping to make the Hamm’s complex a neighborhood keystone once again.

“The Hamm’s brewery is a big part of the history of the East Side,” said J. Kou Vang, JB Vang’s president and CEO.

The East Side has served as the “launching pad” for generations of immigrant communities, he said, from the Irish and Scandinavians who arrived 100 years ago, to the Hmong, Latino and East African immigrants who have come to St. Paul in the past 50 years and today call the neighborhood home.

Vang envisions a new development to serve these newest generations of East Siders. In the coming years, a parking lot will be transformed into 110 new apartments, and abandoned buildings in the historic brewery will hold another 86. The ground floor of the brewery will become shops.

The apartments will come with income limits, with the hope that they will be affordable for lower- and middle-income residents, and big enough for families. The marketplace of shops will be geared toward residents’ everyday needs — rather than a shopping-and-dining destination for people from outside the neighborhood, Vang said.

The project has already been three years in the making, but Vang said the Hamm’s site saw big steps forward in 2025. In December, the state of Minnesota approved a key grant, and this year the city rezoned the property to allow for apartments and approved a historic designation that unlocks tax credits. Vang said the process has been complicated.

“You have to have the right mix of political will, staff that wants to get it done, federal funding, state funding, county funding. Everything has to come together,” he said. “That confluence doesn’t come together very often.”

But a lot did in 2025.

At least on paper. Standing in the shell of the old factory building, it is hard to see any of that vision behind the dust, rubble and peeling paint.

The building is structurally sound, said Ashley Bisner of JB Vang, but it might not be for much longer.

Urban explorers have left their mark, too, taking souvenirs, breaking windows and covering the walls in graffiti.

The neglect has not been for lack of effort from the city.

St. Paul’s Housing and Redevelopment Authority bought the whole complex in 2004, after the brewery closed in 1997, and sold off a few parcels to other businesses over the years. Today, St. Paul Brewing is the biggest tenant. The craft brewery’s owner also owns three parcels and has fought to block JB Vang’s development of the parking lot. A lawsuit filed over the summer has been referred to mediation.

Renovating industrial relics from the early 20th century has plenty of challenges, but natural light isn’t one of them.

Even on a cloudy winter day, light streamed in through the building’s large windows as Bisner and Stephanie Harr, also of JB Vang, walked visitors through the building.

But peering up at the tall ceilings and the remnants of wrought-iron staircases, the vision for the soaring space comes into focus.

The loft-and-marketplace concept was tried in St. Paul a decade ago at the old Schmidt Brewery on West Seventh. There, the apartments are popular, but the commercial ventures have struggled. The Rathskellar restaurant and the Keg and Case Market are closed. The marketplace’s developer is in bankruptcy, owing hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Housing and Redevelopment Authority.

The JB Vang team says its development will not meet the same fate, though the project will have fewer apartments than the 250 units at the Schmidt Brewery and is situated in a poorer neighborhood.

Vang said he believes building for East Siders will be more sustainable than building a destination for others.

“We have a great East Side, a vibrant East Side,” he said.