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This story is a joint publication partnership between the Rochester Beacon and the Cleveland Prost.
There’s a building at the corner of Coach and Bemis streets in Canandaigua that’s spent more than 200 years reinventing itself.
Built in the early 1800s as a modest outbuilding associated with the Lapham House next door, the structure later served as a carpentry shop before undergoing an extensive renovation between 2007 and 2010 to become a pottery studio. Peacemaker Brewing Co. brought the building at 39 Coach St. into its latest chapter in 2020, after owner Todd Reardon had launched the brewery four years earlier in another Canandaigua location.
Now, Reardon is preparing to change it again. He plans to extend the first floor by roughly 12 feet, add garage-door-style openings connecting the interior with the beer garden, and turn his second-floor apartment into an event space with its own bar and a deck overlooking the patio and stage below.
The project is expected to cost $555,000. New York is putting $389,000 toward it through the Downtown Revitalization Initiative, the state’s signature downtown investment program.
That makes Peacemaker one of 10 Canandaigua projects receiving a combined $9.7 million from the state’s $10 million DRI award. (The other nine are a preservation project for City Hall; apartment conversions at 100 South Main St., 88-92 South Main St. and 143 South Main St.; a creative-arts hub at 97 South Main St.; streetscape overhauls of Coach Street and Phoenix Street; an upgrade to the Central on Main gathering space; and a citywide small project grant fund.)
But the more interesting question isn’t simply why Peacemaker is expanding. It’s how a brewery ended up with $389,000 in state funding in the first place.
The answer starts with understanding what Peacemaker was competing against: not a field of breweries, but 26 other projects seeking a share of the $10 million award. Based on the project records reviewed, only one other brewery-related proposal entered Canandaigua’s DRI process: a proposed new microbrewery, bistro and apartment a few doors down at 32 Coach St., which ultimately wasn’t recommended for funding.
Twenty-seven projects wanted the money
When Canandaigua was selected as the Finger Lakes region’s Round 8 DRI winner in February 2025, the city received a $10 million investment opportunity. That money didn’t come with a predetermined list of projects. Instead, the award kicked off a local planning process involving city officials, residents, business owners, consultants, and state representatives.
A 15-member local planning committee, co-chaired by former Mayor Bob Palumbo and former Ontario County Chamber of Commerce president Tracey Dello Stritto (now CEO of Finger Lakes Visitors Connection), worked through the proposals and ultimately recommended the projects that became part of the city’s final investment plan. Project sponsors presented their ideas to the committee, while the city held engagement opportunities where residents could weigh in.
There were far more proposals than money. Records obtained through a Freedom of Information Law request show that 27 projects were proposed, worth a combined $28.4 million in total project costs—nearly three times the $10 million Canandaigua had available. Sponsors requested $24 million in DRI funding specifically, more than double what the city could award.
The proposals show how broad the city’s ambitions were for its downtown. Several proposals would have created apartments in vacant or underused downtown space. One sought $740,000 to renovate 100 South Main St., including new residential units and facade improvements. Another requested $673,000 for 88-92 South Main St., with plans to create additional housing above existing commercial space. A $450,000 proposal for 143 South Main St. also involved rehabilitating an upper floor and improving the building’s facade.
There were larger public projects, too. Central on Main sought $2.25 million for improvements, while the Phoenix Street proposal called for $4.24 million in pedestrian and public-space improvements—later scaled back considerably. City Hall preservation was proposed at $675,000, and a $1.8 million Coach Street project envisioned a substantial overhaul of the public space around the corridor where Peacemaker operates.
Peacemaker’s proposal was one piece of that much larger puzzle. The committee was responsible for working through the proposals and recommending projects, and the planning documents identify the kinds of considerations that mattered to the DRI process, including community benefit, economic impact, readiness and consistency with Canandaigua’s downtown vision. But the records do not provide a project-by-project explanation of why Peacemaker was selected while other proposals were not.
Peacemaker also had public support. An online survey drew 165 responses and asked participants to classify projects as ones they “loved,” “liked” or “didn’t like.” Sixty-five percent of respondents said they loved Peacemaker’s proposal, while another 22% said they liked it. That put the brewery among the proposals classified as receiving high public support.
Peacemaker’s proposal changed, too
When Reardon submitted the proposal in July 2025, he estimated that the project would cost $455,000 and requested $319,000 from the state, the maximum 70% reimbursement available to private applicants. Documents obtained through FOIL filings show that he had considered several concepts, including larger redevelopment ideas and a possible pedestrian connection between downtown and the lakefront, before the brewery expansion became the focus.
As he worked with city officials and DRI consultants, Reardon’s proposal became more targeted. Rather than attempting a much larger redevelopment, the project concentrated on making better use of the building Peacemaker already occupied. The first floor would get larger, creating more room for the tasting room and performances. The garage-door-style openings would allow the indoor space to open toward the beer garden. Upstairs, Reardon’s apartment would become a dedicated event room.
That addresses a fairly mundane problem identified in the DRI materials: Peacemaker’s indoor space is small enough that live music and ordinary taproom business compete for the same room, particularly during the colder months. The brewery’s current tasting room has a legal occupancy limit of 49 people, according to the project documents. The additional space would let Peacemaker separate those functions.
One of the more interesting details in the DRI process involves a different building on the same street. Just down the block, Todd Henderson had proposed converting a building currently used as a keg-cleaning service for local breweries at 32 Coach St. into a small brewery and bistro, with a residential unit upstairs—a $425,000 project that, if funded, would have added a second brewery to the same corridor as Peacemaker. Henderson isn’t new to the brewery business; he and his wife previously owned Dobber’s Sports Bar & Grill, which for years was also home to Three Huskies Brewing.
It never made the funded list. The local planning committee classified it as a “supporting project”—recommended for no DRI dollars, with only a brief write-up in the final plan acknowledging it as a good idea that wasn’t ready to move forward. The public Coach Street streetscape project a block away—$1.925 million for new landscaping, street trees, lighting, seating, parking improvements and utility work—fared differently: It was funded as one of the 10 projects ultimately selected for the DRI award.
The records don’t establish that Peacemaker’s proposal was chosen over Henderson’s, or that the committee considered one more deserving than the other. They were different kinds of projects competing for the same limited pool of money. Still, the outcome is notable: Of two brewery-related proposals on Coach Street, only the existing, already-operating business received state funding.
That doesn’t necessarily end Henderson’s idea. It means he’ll need another source of money if he wants to pursue it. Meanwhile, Peacemaker’s project got more expensive.
The $389,000 comes with some strings attached
After DRI consultants Urban Strategies Inc. and contractors reviewed the Peacemaker plan and refined the budget, the estimated cost increased from $455,000 to $555,000. The state ultimately awarded $389,000, which remains exactly 70% of the final project cost.
The remaining $166,000 is Peacemaker’s responsibility. Project documents show Reardon has committed approximately $43,000 of his own money and plans to finance the rest through commercial lending. There’s another detail about the grant that is easy to miss in the state’s announcement: Peacemaker isn’t simply receiving $389,000 upfront.
The DRI is structured as a reimbursement program. Construction hasn’t yet begun at the property, and the brewery has to finance the work itself, complete it, document the expenses and only then receive the state reimbursement. The award significantly reduces Peacemaker’s eventual share of the project, but Reardon still has to come up with the money to get the work done up front.
The grant is a public investment in a private business, which is allowed under the DRI program when private projects are considered part of a broader downtown revitalization strategy. Canandaigua’s final package mixes private development with public improvements, housing and historic preservation.
Peacemaker’s application made the case that the brewery was already functioning as one of those downtown gathering places. Since moving to Coach Street, it has expanded beyond brewing and beer service to include food, outdoor seating and regular live entertainment. The project materials projected five to eight new jobs.
Breweries have gotten DRI money before
Peacemaker isn’t the first brewery to benefit from New York’s Downtown Revitalization Initiative. The state has used DRI money to support brewing projects elsewhere, including one just down the road in Geneva.
Geneva won its own $10 million DRI award in 2016, and in 2017 the city put $475,000 of that funding toward Twisted Rail Brewing Co. The brewery used the grant to convert a long-vacant movie theater at 499 Exchange St.—the Jones Theatre when it opened in 1915, more recently known as the Regent Theatre—into its production facility, tasting room and restaurant. Twisted Rail’s owners told me the overall redevelopment cost roughly $1.5 million when I wrote about the property’s opening. The work turned a long-dormant downtown building into a brewery and restaurant.
Geneva isn’t an isolated case, either. New York’s promotional materials for the DRI program point to craft breweries as examples of downtown revitalization, including projects in Geneva, Batavia, Olean and Oneonta. In Olean, DRI funding helped support an expansion of Four Mile Brewing as part of that city’s own $10 million award.
That history puts Peacemaker’s award in context. New York has previously treated breweries as potential downtown anchors when deciding how to invest DRI money, particularly when the projects involve putting new life into older buildings, attracting customers and creating jobs. Peacemaker’s proposal makes a similar case for its expansion in Canandaigua.
Reardon, a Navy veteran and longtime homebrewer, opened Peacemaker in 2016 on Pleasant Street. In a 2016 profile I wrote about the brewery’s opening, he told me that he wanted the brewery to be known for making quality beer without worrying about fitting neatly into one particular style. The brewery’s name came from the band Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers, and Reardon said he wanted people to come in as strangers and leave feeling like part of a community. He did not respond to multiple requests for comment for this story.
It’s a fitting use for a structure that has spent two centuries being repurposed, from an outbuilding to a carpentry shop to a pottery studio and eventually a brewery. Now, it will enter another chapter, with Peacemaker betting that more room for events and customers can help make the brewery an even bigger downtown draw.
The expansion’s economic impact will take time to determine. So will the larger question facing Canandaigua: whether the collection of projects selected through the DRI process actually changes its downtown in the way the city and state hope. Peacemaker has its $389,000 award, a $555,000 project, and a construction process ahead of it.
Will Cleveland is a Rochester Beacon contributing writer. A former Democrat and Chronicle reporter, he writes about beer in the Finger Lakes region and Western New York on Substack.
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