Urban Chestnut Recognized By Missouri Governor Jay Nixon

From Urban Chestnut:

Urban Chestnut Grove Brewery & Bierhall Recognized & Awarded by Missouri Governor Jay Nixon Urban Chestnut Brewing Company is pleased and honored to announce they are the recipients of the 2015 Governor’s Metropolitan Community/Redevelopment Project of the Year Award. During a luncheon this past Thursday, September 3rd at Union Station in Saint Louis, MO, Urban Chestnut and Green Street St. Louis, Urban Chestnut’s real-estate development partner, were presented the prestigious award by Missouri Governor Jay Nixon during the 2015 Governor’s Conference on Economic Development.

In February 2014, Urban Chestnut Brewing Company (UCBC), in conjunction with Green Street St. Louis, an innovative real estate firm recognized for the sustainable redevelopment of underutilized St. Louisarea commercial properties, opened the Urban Chestnut Grove Brewery & Bierhall, which is located in St. Louis’ Forest Park Southeast neighborhood, aka The Grove.
The 70,000 square foot Grove Brewery & Bierhall, which had once housed the Renard Paper Company, features a 450 person bierhall, a state-of-the-art brew house, a fermentation hall, a packaging hall, a warehouse, and it provides Urban Chestnut with the capacity to brew approximately 30,000 barrels of beer annually. Earlier this year, in February, the building became the state’s first LEED Certified brewery (just one of a handful of brewers nationally) featuring a solar panel array, easy access to public transportation, indoor bike storage, and an assortment of other energy saving features. These features along with other sustainability efforts and economic achievements resulted in Urban Chestnut winning the 2015 Metropolitan Community /Redevelopment Project of the Year Award, which recognizes the best example of a community/redevelopment project that demonstrated a significant impact on a metropolitan neighborhood or community.

Some of the energy efficient highlights of the Urban Chestnut Grove Brewery & Bierhall project:

• 100 percent of the building structure retained
• 41 percent reduction in Lighting Power Density from baseline
• Employee and indoor customer bike parking
• 97 percent use of ENERGY STAR equipment
• 64 percent of construction waste diverted from landfills
• 36 percent reduction in water usage from baseline
• 900,000 kWh of clean energy purchased per year to offset carbon emissions
• 25kW solar panel array1
• 100+ new jobs created

Other Governor’s award winners:
• Sherry Turner, founder of OneKC for Women – Missouri Women’s Council Award of Distinction.
• Denny Coleman, CEO, STL Econ. Dvlpmnt. Partnership – Career Service in Economic Development Award
• Rug Doctor Inc., – Innovative Industry Training Award
• TK Architects International Inc., Kansas City – Exporter of the Year Award
• Clearview Window Cleaning, Springfield – Minority or Woman-Owned Small Business of the Year Award
• John Engelmann, manager of economic development for KCP&L – Hawthorn Foundation Volunteer Economic Development Award
• Jim Eberlin, CEO of St. Louis-based startup TopOPPS Inc. – Entrepreneur of the Year Award
• Owens Corning, Joplin – Business Project of the Year Award

Picture caption (From L) Mike Downing, MO Dept. of Economic Development Director, Phil Hulse, (Managing Principal Green Street St. Louis), Kevin Morell, (Principal Green Street St. Louis) Florian Kuplent (Co-Founder and Brewmaster, Urban Chestnut Brewing Company), David Wolfe (Co-Founder, Urban Chestnut Brewing Company), and Governor Jay Nixon at the 2015 Governor’s Conference on Economic Development.