USA, OH: Unhitched Brewing Co. set to come to downtown Louisville soon

Louisville City officials are hoping a new brewery will help bring more people downtown, the Canton Repository reported on September 5.

Unhitched Brewing Co. is the name of the craft brewery set to occupy a now vacant commercial building in the 100 block of S. Mill Street.

“We will set up a brew pub,” said Adam Longacre, one of three principals of 3 Hops, the limited liability company that will operate the brewery.

“It is basically just a brewery that serves food. Not your typical kind of pub food. It is a limited menu, heavy appetizers. We are going to make our own beer. We will more than likely have wine available. We will bring in all the material and brew the beer on-site.”

Work is expected to begin soon to renovate the former bowling alley.

“We are going to completely gut the whole place and start it from scratch,” Longacre said. “We are going to do a complete renovation. The bowling lanes will be gone.”

City Council threw its support behind the endeavor by approving a 10-year tax-abatement package that will forgive any real estate tax on the improvements to the building.

“As the property increases in value, they will not be taxed for the increased value,” City Councilman Richard Guiley said. “Both the investment and activity that craft breweries tend to generate is what we want. Craft breweries bring people to wherever they are located.”

Longacre’s two other partners are Ben Biery of Biery Cheese Co. and George Kiko, a Nimishillen Township trustee. The total investment for 3 Hops is $572,000, according to the tax-abatement agreement through the city’s Community Reinvestment Area program.

The project is to entail renovation of 13,728 square feet in the red brick and cinder-block structure. The work is projected to be done in June.

“We don’t have anything like this,” Mayor Patricia Fallot said. “I think it will be a win-win situation. It will bring people in downtown.”

The 3 Hops group is to hire two full-time employees and three part-timers by May.

“There are not a lot of options in Louisville for food and drinks,” Longacre said. “It is going to drive a lot of traffic to Louisville where people haven’t (in the past) come to Louisville. I think this is going to be a unique experience for people. I think it will be well-received.”

Two blocks to the west is the Town Tavern in the 100 block of E. Main Street, the only tavern downtown.

“I think it is a different clientele,” Longacre said.

Other local craft breweries include Sandy Springs Brewing Co. in the 200 block of N. Market Street in Minerva and Canton Brewing Co. in the 100 block of Third Street NW in Canton. The owner of Canton Brewing Co., Dave Beule, said he expects the Louisville project to succeed.

“The reason that people like craft beer is they are hand-made here locally,” Beule said. “It really appeals to about everyone. It is quite amazing how these things catch on.”

Unhitched Brewing Co. is projected to gross more than $250,000 in tap-room sales during the first year of operation. That figure is projected to rise to $400,000 in two years and $700,000 in the third year. Tap-room sales will not include proceeds from selling food or wine.

“This is the kind of investment that we welcome, particularly in our downtown,” City Councilman Corey Street said. “We want to have businesses downtown that create more foot traffic, not only from our people, but bring people from out of town here.”

The establishment that was in the building was known as Louisville Bowl.

“It just went out of business, I think early this year,” Mayor Fallot said.

Longacre said he and his two partners could have selected a larger community.

“We all have an interest in revitalizing Louisville, downtown in particular,” Longacre said. “I think this will be a catalyst in revitalizing Louisville and downtown. This will be a good first start for the city. Our vested interest is to revitalize Louisville. We could have taken this anywhere. We could have gone to Canton. Our heart is in Louisville.”

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