Brownwood Lodge setting up goes beneath deal for sale

The former Brownwood Hotel, shown in an aerial view, is the tallest building in Brown and neighboring counties.

It was Oct 2019, and Jeff Tucker was getting ready for the opening of his new company, “Teddy’s Brewhaus.”

Tucker was delighted that a developer experienced expressed desire in shopping for and renovating the previous Brownwood Hotel, the 12-tale, prolonged-vacant creating at Fisk and Baker streets — just throughout the road from Teddy’s.

The renovation of the historic developing, which opened in 1930, “would mean a ton,” Tucker said in an job interview on that Oct afternoon at Teddy’s, which was a couple days absent from seeing its first clients.

That developer did not stop up purchasing the developing, which is owned by an entity recognised as 200 Fisk LLC.

Practically two yrs later, Tucker’s corporation, Pecan Bayou Enterprises, has entered a deal with 200 Fisk LLC to invest in the iconic brown-brick setting up — the tallest framework, by far, in Brown and neighboring counties.

The making, which was also once regarded as Sid Richardson Hall when Howard Payne University utilised it as a dorm, has been vacant considering the fact that 1986.

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‘Due diligence’

Tucker stressed that the order is under contract — it is not total.

“We have a deal on the developing to obtain, and suitable now, as of Monday, we are in our because of diligence analyze section for the invest in,” Tucker said Wednesday.

“We’ve received a shorter window for due diligence. Within just 90 times we’ll shut, and that’s if almost everything checks out with the building. I do not consider we’re heading to find any surprises. I hope we do not. But if we do, we’ll deal with it. It is like any genuine estate obtain. You have a set time to do your thanks diligence, and then you near.”

Tucker is optimistic that the gurus who are analyzing the making will not come across any deal-killing troubles, and the closing on the buy is tentatively established for late September.

‘A boutique hotel’

Tucker claimed he envisions a renovation and improvement that is anticipated to include things like a restaurant and the restoration of the best-floor ballroom. It will acquire at the very least a 12 months of arranging, and in all probability 5 yrs of design to complete the multi-million-greenback challenge, Tucker stated.

“We’ve got a common idea,” Tucker stated of the development. “These matters morph as you get into them, but I see it for now as a boutique hotel. They call them boutique hotels because of the dimension of the rooms that existed from that time period and is largely characterised by its lesser measurement, personalised support and local personality, which can vary significantly based on in which the house is situated.

“You’ll have some rooms in excess of there that will still be remaining as efficiencies. You’ll have some that will be suites. You will have some that will be mixed into bigger suites. You may possibly make some retail space in it. If downtown dwelling was a little something that was viable, you could possibly even make that.”

Heritage of the developing

Posts posted in newspapers and other publications present Lodge Brownwood, as it was the moment regarded, opened Nov. 21, 1930, owned and operated by the Southern Nationwide Resort Corp. of Galveston.

The hotel experienced 216 rooms, a coffee shop and eating room. An write-up published by regional historian Clay Riley, revealed on the Pecan Valley Genealogical Society Facebook web page, also presents the hotel’s history which includes:

November 1929 — a group of Brownwood businessmen announced plans to make a 12-tale hotel.
January 1930 — a deal was awarded to J.O. Everett and Co. of Dallas to built the lodge. Total bids approached $375,000.
February 1930 — excavation of the basement started.
November 1930 — the lodge was completed with a grand ballroom on the 12th ground, a espresso shop, splendor shop and barber store.
In accordance to Riley’s short article, the lodge was “the place” for significant civic, school and organizational banquets. Through the 1960s, the resort was the vacation spot for website visitors to Brownwood.
Mid-1960s — the hotel was known as the Browntowner Moter Inn and was nearing its conclusion as a worthwhile resort, Riely’s posting states.
December 1968 — the Sid W. Richardson Basis procured the lodge as a gift to HPU for male scholar housing. The creating became Sid Richardson Corridor.
Drop 1986 — HPU closed the corridor and the people ended up moved to Jennings Corridor.

A 1996 post printed in the HPU Yellow Jacket college student newspaper gave even more background.

Following HPU shut Sid Richardson corridor, the developing was bought by a man named Mitchell Phelps of Woodbridge, Va. Phelps intended to transform the making and reopen it as a lodge, the Yellow Jacket report stated. The posting even further states the process required a lot more money and time than Phelps desired to give, so he put the building up for sale.

‘Let’s do a little something with the Brownwood Hotel’

The background textbooks would show a extensive gap of small to no action pertaining to the creating due to the fact HPU moved out in the mid-1980s. That transformed in March 2019, when Brownwood Town Council customers took a action that could direct to the sale and renovation of the building.

That is when council users permitted a feasibility analyze on the lodge by Houston-based resort consultant Randy McCaslin. The Brownwood Municipal Development District (BMDD) payed the $30,000 charge of the research in addition to the consultant’s out-of-pocket costs of up to $5,000.

Ray Tipton, government director of the municipal advancement district, told council members the BMDD acquired a proposal at the BMDD’s request to carry out the analyze. A developer experienced expressed interest in the assets and the study was a “needed to start with step” in the system of doing the job with the developer, Tipton told council members then.

“It’s always been everybody’s dream — ‘let’s do some thing wth the Brownwood Hotel,’” Tipton instructed council associates. “I listen to that time and once again.”

When Tucker was not the developer to whom Tipton referred, Tucker was absolutely knowledgeable of the constructing, which is obvious by way of a window in Teddy’s Brewhaus. Tucker was currently possessing conversations with the building’s operator.

“I’ve been chatting with the operator for more than four yrs,” Tucker said Wednesday. “We had approached them at that time to see if this was a task that could be designed as a historic renovation.

“There have basically been quite a few people intrigued in the house, and rightfully so. There is not quite a few buildings like this remaining in Texas. How numerous substantial-rises do you know in a 100-mile radius of Brownwood? When you get started on the lookout at these kinds of historic properties — no matter whether it is the Baker Hotel in Mineral Wells, or the Barfield Resort currently being finished in Amarillo or even the hotels down in San Saba — these varieties of matters are gems that are still left to either be destroyed or renovated. Our hope is to build a historic renovation on the outdated resort.”

The professionals will talk

Tucker stated some of the “due diligence” steps that need to be finished.

“I’ve already finished some previous cursory inspections of the property,” Tucker explained. “I’ve experienced some engineers wander by with me on the property, and we have contracted professionals to examine for structural integrity. And on a composition like this, too, you have to build techniques for public well being and safety, fire and security. People we’ve hired for our inspections — quite specific tasks to explore what you can do or just can’t do for the structure.

“I’ve obtained an engineer coming out of Dallas who is likely to go in and take core samples of concrete, for illustration. They’re heading to check out on the brick facade. They’re going to examine on the roof. There is a study that has to be accomplished of the physical home by itself. There’s a whole litany of factors that we’ll be checking in that 90 days.”