As developers continue to work on the city’s downtown revitalization projects, the Shuffle City Brewing Company at 13 W. Main St. is nearing completion.
“The brewing operation is up and functioning,” said Matt Martin, owner of the new business in the renovated site of the former Kendzie’s bowling alley.
The renovation for second-floor apartments was completed last year at the building formerly known as Kendzie’s bowling alley.
Despite installing a new kitchen, a six-barrel brewing system, restoring the original bar, and hiring brewer Colin Herzog, the ground floor brew pub has no opening date.
“The brewing operation is up and functioning,” Martin said last week. “Colin has started brewing his first couple of batches. He’s got a couple of beers brewed and a couple sodas brewed.”
Martin said concrete was poured last week for five regulation indoor shuffleboard courts and two bocce courts, but finishing surfaces are still needed and a furniture order is awaiting delivery.
Vicki Smith, president and CEO of the Greater Lockport Development Corporation (GLDC), said extensions have been approved for all of the city’s projects that received funding from state Downtown Revitalization Initiative (DRI) grants.
“I know Matt Martin has already started hiring and the four apartments are renting,” Smith said. Referring to indoor shuffleboard, she said, “It’s a great original concept. He’s got a twist to it. I think looking at these historic buildings, to see them reused, to me, is a huge win. It’s going to be worth it.”
“We understand that people are frustrated that it’s taken time to open,” Martin said. “At the end of the day, we’re trying to bring something to the City of Lockport, my brother and I. Sometimes we had to stop and slow down because we had to reverse engineer something or do it a different way. If you don’t pay attention to things, it can get expensive pretty quick. We made a commitment to see this thing through. We’re going to continue to make it happen. We just want people to enjoy it and have a place to go and know it was produced by hometown boys. We’re getting very close.”
Smith said the city has $1.7 million remaining from the state Downtown Revitalization Initiative (DRI) grants, and spending is extended through next summer.
Renovation of the former Spaulding Mill located on Pine Street with a view of the locks has been reduced in scope, Smith said. Now known as the Historic Lockport Mill Race, she said interior renovations are no longer being considered due to structural issues.
“We have New York State heavily involved,” Smith said of the redesigned project, which seeks to establish a visitor observation deck for the canal. “We are seeing how much we can complete leading up to the rooftop. Right now we’re looking at the railing, and securing the windows.”
“Unfortunately, when they got into doing detailed design, it needed more structural reinforcements than was included in the DRI visioning,” said Mike Marino, CEO of Nussbaumer & Clarke, the engineering firm on retainer with the city. “Once the engineers got into it, to meet the building codes and put as many people on it as they want to,
it needs multi-million dollar structural reinforcement. They’ve gone back to the drawing board to make it a more limited project.
Marino said the design and construction of the project costs nearly $2 million, with the design nearly complete. A request for proposals is expected this winter, with construction planned for spring, he said.
Restructuring the triangular intersection at Pine, Lock, and Gooding streets is also expected in spring 2027, Marino said. The DRI project will add parking and bio-swales along the sides of Gooding near the Lock Tender taproom, placing the traffic lanes where a center triangle is now located. Bio-swales look like planting beds, but serve as water runoff controls. To build the bio-swales, Marino said basins are dug into the street and overflow pipes are installed. Stone and soil are added, Marino said, and plants that are known to soak up significant water are installed. Similar bio-swales were installed along South Street, Marino said.
Bio-swales and street-side parking will also be constructed on Lock Street, with traffic reduced to one way only, Marino said.