News

Potosi Brewery Foundation keeping lid on early celebration

Up to governor: Group awaits official word for $150,000 state grant

by Craig Reber

POTOSI, Wis. - Help for the Potosi' Brewery restoration project has cleared another hurdle and supporters hope Gov. Scott McCallum gives the final thumbs up.

Rep. Gabe Loeffelholz, R-Platteville, was able to earmark $150,000 in the Assembly budget for the project. Passing both the Assembly and the Senate, the budget is now waiting for the governor's approval.

"Hopefully, he won't line-item veto it," said Potosi Brewery Foundation Vice President Frank Fiorenza. "I don't want to say it's a done deal until it is."

A $28,900 fund-raising campaign was kicked off earlier this year by the non-profit Potosi Brewery Foundation for the Potosi Brewery building.

The foundation was formed early last year with a goal to restore the historic landmark. The restoration project carries a price tag estimated at $1.2 million.

The foundation recently hired River Architects, of La Crosse, to do a historic structures report, which is under way.

The foundation also established a Long-term Use Committee to plan for the future use of the building.

The original building dates to 1852, with additions in 1916 and 1933. In 1933, the Potosi Brewery was one of 79 operating in Wisconsin.

Plans call for the first floor of the building to be used for a microbrewery, leased to a small brewer to restore the original aromas, sights and sounds of a functioning brewery. Additional first-floor plans call for recreating the actual Potosi Brewery as it was in 1933. According to Fiorenza, numerous artifacts are in the area and will be returned to the foundation.

Another first-floor area will become the first room of the National Brewery Museum, and will focus on breweries from around the United States, including the largest remaining breweries.

The second floor will house the Potosi and National Brewery museums, a gift shop and restaurant and kitchen.

The third floor will continue with the museum displays.

Hopes are for the foundation to raise $900,000 as part of the $1.2 million completion figure. The foundation has targeted the following:

• $430,000 - National Brewery Museum interests.

• $200,000 - Potosi Brewery Museum interests that consist of descendants of former employees and owners, former suppliers and distributors, and anyone associated with the brewery.

• $150,000 - State of Wisconsin grant that's part of the current state budget.

• $120,000 - Local and tri-state area contributions.

The remaining money would be a $300,000 challenge grant from the Janesville-based Jeffris Family Foundation, which averages $1 million per year in grants to small-town restoration projects, most of them in Wisconsin. Prairie du Chien's Villa Louis was a beneficiary of the foundation.

Fiorenza called the mood one of "cautious optimism," adding, "we do feel, one way or another, this is going to work. One way or another, people are going to make things happen."

Citing Dubuque's brewing history with the Dubuque Star Brewery and the city's riverfront development, Fiorenza thinks the Potosi project can complement the America's River project.

"I see it as an asset," he said. "There's a real historic connection between southwest Wisconsin and northeast Iowa. And visitors are thinking tri-state attractions."

© 2001 Telegraph Herald