Jacksonville’s Bold City Brewery is a step closer to opening its second location in downtown Jacksonville.
On Wednesday, the Downtown Investment Authority’s Retail Enhancement Committee okayed a $28,000 forgivable loan for renovations to a building Bold City is leasing at 109 E. Bay St. The money doesn’t have to be paid back if the business is still there five years later.
Bold City co-owner Brian Miller says the new location, which he’s leasing from restaurateur and businessman Jacques Klempf, fulfills a dream he had when he and his mother opened eight years ago in Riverside.
“And it really helps us because we’ve got an area to, kind of, test out new batches to see what the public thinks of them, but at the same time, we get to have a face downtown. Born and raised in downtown Jacksonville, we’ve always wanted to see a revitalized downtown,” he says.
Miller says the original Bold City location on Roselle Street will remain open. The smaller downtown location will be a beer lab of sorts, where brewers will create small batches of new flavors and serve them alongside Bold City staples like Duke's Cold Nose Brown Ale and Killer Whale Cream Ale.
Miller says the Investment Authority approached him when word got out he was looking for a second location—so he’s pretty confident the full DIA board will also approve the money later this month.
The whole renovation will cost $122,000, and the loan must be used on permanent parts of the building, like brick work, but not on beer-specific equipment.
And Bold City isn’t the only brewery opening on Bay Street. Another Riverside brewery, Intuition Ale Works, is relocating later this year just to the east of the Maxwell House coffee factory.
