The Brewhouse – formerly Mitchell Brewery

The Brewhouse: Falstaff complex for sale; tenants want art center
By Vic Kolenc \ EL PASO TIMES
Posted: 07/04/2010 12:00:00 AM MDT

EL PASO -- Victor Trujillo just wanted to buy the building housing his 33-year-old produce company. He ended up owning one of El Paso's mostly forgotten industrial icons -- the former Falstaff brewery complex. Now he wants to sell it.
The property, dominated by a four-story building where beer was brewed for about 30 years, is tucked behind Trujillo's produce warehouse and two other produce companies in a low-income neighborhood off Alameda Avenue. The main building, a 75-year-old brick structure at 140 Stevens, is called The Brewhouse. All the brewery equipment was removed and the building converted to huge but crude loft-style apartments and artists' studios. This was done in the late 1970s by the previous owners. Several artists live in the building, which has 11 apartments.
Trujillo, owner of Victor's Produce, bought most of the former brewery property in April 2008. A small part of the complex, where a beer garden and the former home of brewery owner Harry Mitchell stand, was bought by El Paso auctioneer Walter Parker in November 2008. He is renovating that area, at Latta and Frutas, for a rental party complex.
Trujillo said the only reason he bought the brewery buildings was that they came as a package deal with the building housing his produce warehouse, which he wanted to buy for years. He said he paid less than $1 million for the brewery buildings and his produce warehouse at 3701 Alameda. He would not divulge the exact price. "I want to sell the building and my business. I'm getting ready to retire," Trujillo, 73, said last week as he worked behind a desk on the truck dock of his produce company. He is asking $2 million.
The brewery buildings he owns and his produce warehouse were appraised by the El Paso Central Appraisal District at just over $1 million -- $634,114 for the brewery property and $374,741 for the produce warehouse. Parker's beer garden patio with several buildings was appraised by the district at $150,000.
Artists colony
El Paso artists Abel Saucedo, 25, and Reginald Armstrong, 26, were excited to hear that The Brewhouse is for sale. They discovered the hidden treasure last year, and moved into a third-floor apartment in May 2009. They would like a new owner to breathe new life into the complex and turn it into a centralized art community, filled with studios. "This is a perfect space for an artist to live," said Saucedo, an El Paso native, as he stood between a yard-sized trampoline and pool table in the main living area of his industrial-sized apartment. "We can do any kind of art here." Huge oil paintings by Saucedo and Armstrong hang on a wall. Sunlight poured through two windows that stretch from just above the apartment's concrete floor to its about
Victor Trujillo owns the Brewhouse at 140 N. Stevens and Victor's Produce down the street at 3701 Alameda. Rudy Gutierrez/El Paso Times 20-foot-high concrete ceiling.
Many areas of the complex are showing age. Paint is peeling off exterior walls, and some windows are missing or boarded up. A pile of junk is stored in the front of what is labeled "The Bottle House." The interior hallways of the apartment building are stark, with steep metal stairways and a troublesome freight elevator.
Cheap rents
While Saucedo and Armstrong would like to see upgrades, they also don't want the apartments to become unaffordable for struggling artists. Trujillo said rents range from $350 to $450 a month. Reiner Boehme, 59, has lived in the building's top-floor apartment since 2006 with his wife, Alice Mettey. She dabbles in metal sculpting and jewelry making. Boehme said the building needs more care and maintenance. But Boehme, a retired drummer who works in the El Paso school district mailroom, said he's concerned any major renovation would price him out of the building. "This building is almost 100 years old and sturdy. It will last a long time. I hope they don't knock it down," Boehme said.
Turning breweries into apartments and other uses is not unusual. For example, former Falstaff breweries in New Orleans and St. Louis have been converted into high-end apartment complexes. The former Tivoli Brewery in Denver was converted into a retail and student center as part of a university campus.
Promising future
Bruce Berman, a photographer, has lived in The Brewhouse for 30 years. He said he sees a bright future for it because he expects the Texas Tech medical school-University Medical Center campus, a mile west of the building, to eventually spawn redevelopment in his neighborhood. The brewery complex's value would be enhanced if the train tracks next to it were removed, as has been talked about for years, he said. Trains rumble past the building more than 40 times a day, something that bothers Berman.
Berman said he has told himself a hundred times through the years that he would move, especially in recent years. He sees the building more suited to young, hungry artists than to an aging college teacher. But the unique apartment in a neighborhood within walking distance to the free Bridge of the Americas keeps him there. The location helps Berman focus on his Border Project, a decades-long chronicling of border life. "I find coming home to the 'hood is really good for me," said Berman, who commutes to Las Cruces to teach photojournalism at New Mexico State University. "This keeps me on the ground. I remember where I am." The building has also had an interesting cast of characters pass through it over the years, he said.
Mitchell to Falstaff
The brewery complex was built in the mid-1930s by Harry Mitchell, an Englishman who moved to El Paso in 1912. He was a hotel bartender and opened a restaurant in Juárez before he and his partner bought a brewery at the current site in 1933. They built the complex standing today on about 3 acres. It operated as Mitchell Brewing Co., until 1956, when the Falstaff Brewing Corp., bought it. The brewery closed in 1967. The Falstaff brand, a top beer brand for decades, lived on until 2005, when Pabst Brewing Co. stopped making it.
Three El Paso businessmen bought the brewery complex in the late 1970s and converted it into apartments. Warehouse space was leased, as it is still today. Several businesses also operated there. Now, the only business in the complex is a small furniture manufacturing shop, Great River Furniture, operated by carpenter Ismael Rodriguez. It's tucked into one of the complex's rear storage areas. He said he once had 10 workers and a bigger space, but the recession slowed sales to furniture stores in Dallas, Houston and other cities.
Fun renovation
Richard Price, who operated several El Paso businesses, including a beer distributorship, is one of the three partners who bought the brewery property after it was vacant for about a decade. "It was priced right, and after we went through it and stumbled through all the trash and bird droppings, we saw a lot of potential," said Price, 85. "With very little renovation we could make apartments out of (part of) it. One of the floors had big holes -- 20 feet across -- where the fermenting tanks were. We had to fill those in. "It was an interesting building. We had a lot of fun, and we spent a lot of money" renovating it, Price said.
Vic Kolenc may be reached at vkolenc@elpasotimes.com; 546-6421.