Chances are you know the building. You see it every time you go down east 4th Street, sitting right at Morrill Avenue. 900 East 4th is what's left of an old beer bottling plant built in 1940. Business after the war was good. Buyer Josh Thieriot, managing member of Highway Ventures tells me, "As they grew, they need additional administrative and operational space, and this was it."
There was a time before modern refrigeration and beer conglomerates when every city had its own local brewery. This one was the Reno Brewing Company, which made "Sierra” and “Royal Beer". But the last beer bottled there was back in 1957. New distribution regulations made the business difficult. He told me there were "too many constraints on distribution. It limited their ability to sell the products."
From there, the building was home to an auto repair shop, a concrete company, then a plumbing supplier. Last time there was a business here was in 1989, leaving 13,000 square feet of space, empty. Josh saw possibilities. As he told me, "The design I think is fantastic, and if you look around the wood beams compliment the steel truss are phenomenal."
He bought the building for $2.25 million. Josh, who now works out of this makeshift office in the corner, has a vision of coffee counters, restaurants and retail: "Having a marketplace where people can come whether they're local or from out of town, and really appreciate the history and the architecture, I think is important."
But looking at it as it is now, it’s hard to picture. It’s in such disarray you wouldn’t know where to start. The work has already begun: "We replaced a dozen or 2 dozen of the glass block where they were cracked from people throwing rocks at them."
They start from the top and work down. The roof is replaced. The massive and unusual skylights were taken down and are being renovated. Much more needs to get done. He says, "We'll run into some unknowns which we normally do, but we're really just starting with a shell." As Josh says, and he put it outside on a sign for all to see, the project is "Restoring the past to preserve the future.”
When will this huge project be finished? Thieriot is targeting next Spring for opening day. But as he said, they may encounter some unknowns along the way.
