The effort to bring a brew pub to downtown Washington received assistance earlier this month when the Washington City Council voted to lend up to $500,000 in grant funding to the project developer, New Vision Partners.

The plan is to place Castle Island Brewery in the old Fowle Building at the intersection of West Main and Respess streets. To protect itself should the venture fail, the city requires New Venture Partners to sign a promissory note and deed of trust —with the city as the beneficiary — for the property to secure the loan.

The city, with help from the Mid-East Commission, sought the grant funding from the North Carolina Department of Commerce by way of community development block grant appropriations. The grant will provide assistance to complete renovation of the Fowle Building. The three-story building, constructed in 1900, contains 11,800 square feet. The building has been vacant for several decades.

“Interior renovations will also occur to accommodate a micro-brewery with a dining facility. Outside the scope of the grant, the company will invest $400,000 in equipment and an additional $800,000 in an up-fit of proposed apartments on the 2^nd and 3^rd floors,” reads a memorandum from City Manager Bobby Roberson to the mayor and council members.

The agreement between the city and New Vision Partners also spells out other project provisions, including one that would allow New Vision Partner to not repay the loan if specific conditions are fulfilled.

During a council meeting last fall, voted unanimously for the city to seek $500,000 in grant funds to help convert the building that once housed Fowle & Sons General Merchandise into a mixed-use building. At that meeting, John Rodman, the city’s director of community and cultural resources, said eight apartments, four on the second floor and four on the third floor, would be part of the overall project. The $500,000 grant represents 71.4 percent of the project’s cost, he told the council then.

In October 2014, the council amended the city’s zoning code to allow microbreweries in certain commercial districts.

In late 2014, the Historic Preservation Commission voted 3-2 to grant a certificate of appropriateness to New Vision Partners to install balconies on certain areas of the second and third floors of the building. The balconies plan, according to Trent Tetterton, who addressed the commission concerning the balconies, called for several of the building’s windows to be replaced by doors and for the doors to open to balconies. Tetterton, an official with the Washington Harbor District Alliance, has played a part in helping find buyers and/or developers for downtown properties.

The city will not sign off on the deal until all reviews of required environmental permits are completed and those permits are issued, which is expected in about 30 days, according to Roberson.