Dozens of businesses interested in former Quarter Barrel restaurant site in Hamilton

About 30 companies have expressed interest in occupying Hamilton’s former Quarter Barrel microbrewery and restaurant location at 103 Main St., one of the city’s key development sites.

“We had I think, it would be fair to say 30 parties that reached out to the city or CORE (the Consortium for Ongoing Reinvestment Efforts Fund),” said Lauren Gersbach, a business development specialist for the city.

She and others offered about 20 tours of the newly renovated building. Quarter Barrel Brewery + Pub abruptly closed its location in the building on Jan. 3, along with its Oxford location. Some of those 20 tours were repeat visits by companies.

The microbrewery had opened last January, exciting the city about the possibility of the location with rooftop dining and views of downtown Hamilton from that rooftop.

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Hamilton sent out requests for qualifications to interested companies on Jan. 11, and responses from the businesses are due back by the close of business Friday.

The city then hopes to decide on a few finalists, perhaps 2-5 companies, and inform those companies next week.

Interested companies are “a good mix of restaurateurs and successful breweries in the southwest Ohio, greater Cincinnati area,” she said. “What we’re looking for that corner is first and foremost a successful restaurant, and secondly, a brewery.”

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“It’s important that we have a restaurant as an anchor tenant as we’re continuing to build the Main Street business district,” she said, adding a successful restaurant would create more foot traffic that would help nearby businesses.

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