Fate of downtown Albany brewery facility under discussion

ALBANY – The question of what to do with Albany’s downtown brewery is set for discussion next month for the Albany City Commission as the body seeks to find a tenant for the facility that closed more than a year ago.

The commission met with a potential occupant of the 120-122 Pine Ave. facility in the summer of 2025, but that was before the city gained control of the facility by purchasing the first option on the foreclosed property.

Now, with that control, the ball is in the commission’s court for pumping new life into a location that had drawn night life to the area.

“We will hopefully be bringing the brewery back in the March (meeting) cycle,” City Manager Terrell Jacobs told commissioners during a Feb. 17 meeting.

The city manager said that he had met with the former operator of the facility, Dr. Joe Harris “Tripp” Morgan III, at the behest of Mayor Bo Dorough.

Dorough sent commissioners a proposal from Morgan in which the former operator asked to rent the property for $1,000 per month with an option to purchase the property and brewing equipment at a cost of $1.2 million.

Jacobs has previously said that Morgan owes the city about $1 million in loan repayments and back taxes.

“I had a great conversation with him,” the city manager said. “I may agree he (Morgan) may have been villainized over time. I think COVID was his Achilles heel.

“At the end of the day we’ve got to figure out how we (utilize) that space.”

One issue to be addressed is the condition of the equipment, which can degrade over time due to lack of use, he said.

“We want to at least get the equipment up to functional,” Jacobs said. “If you don’t run that stuff, over time it’s going to be problematic.”

Morgan’s proposal also calls for the city to make any repairs to the equipment in the brewery exceeding $5,000 that might be necessary due to the year-plus non-use of the more than $1 million in brewing equipment, and for the city to be responsible for repairs and maintenance of mechanical systems in the brewery.

Socius Beer Collective, which has breweries in Lawrenceville, Stone Mountain and Winder in Georgia, and in Hendersonville, N.C., made a proposal in 2025.

The company asked the city to invest additional funding into the facility, including a line of credit of $250,000 to cover operating expenses during the first years of operation if income does not cover expenses.

Socius’ proposal to the city also includes a food stall area, potential apartments or hotel rooms upstairs, a larger tasting/dining room and an enhanced beer garden.

City officials have described the brewery as an “anchor location” that brings people to the inner-city area, a key element to efforts to revitalize downtown.

Glenn Singfield, whose family owns and operates The Flint restaurant, also has been included in discussions with the city and said that he sympathizes with Morgan, although he said he is not working as Morgan’s “savior” in the matter.

“He changed the perception that Albany is not safe, fun, a place to come, to raise your family,” Singfield said. Operating a downtown business “is not easy. It requires a lot of personal sacrifice for me and my family to stay downtown.”

The city can boost downtown’s viability by making the area more attractive, keeping it clean and ensuring that it is a safe place, the restaurateur said. Having the brewery will bring more people, and potential customers for The Flint.

“We’ve got to put something down there that’s going to draw people downtown,” Singfield said. “Community-based, community-owned, that’s what I’d like to see.”

Now that the city has control of the property, it is in a stronger position in the process, Dorough said.

Advertising for proposals while the city had no control over the future of the facility may have been a mistake, he said, as other interested companies may have been unwilling to make a pitch for a building whose fate was up in the air.

“If somebody looked into it and saw the property was in foreclosure … why would they lease the facility from the city?” Dorough said. “It was premature to solicit bids.”

The City Commission could choose from the two proposals on the table or request new proposals before making a decision.

“Either way, I’m going to go in and strongly encourage that we need the brewery downtown,” Dorough said. “The public wants something like this downtown. He (Morgan) put his money in downtown.”