Renovations underway for Curtiss-Wright hangar

Since it opened in 1929, the Curtiss-Wright Hangar at Jim Hamilton-L.B.Owens airport in Columbia has hosted the likes of Amelia Earhart, Jimmy Doolittle and Franklin D. Roosevelt. But for decades, it had fallen into disrepair, a crumbling historic gem.

Today, the hangar is undergoing a $1.2 million renovation. It already has a new roof, and workers are busy rewiring its electrical systm, installing windows, painting walls, and building new bathrooms.

In 90 days, Kevin Varner, brewer and owner of the Hunter-Gatherer brew pub, plans to drop another $1 million into the old structure to open Columbia’s newest and most unusual brewery. He plans to open by Aug. 1.

“It’s a rare opportunity,” Varner said. “I just wanted to be able to come to work in a really interesting spot every day.”

Varner began brewing in 1990 as a University of South Carolina student, using a five-gallon kit in his apartment. After graduating that year, he set out for Oregon and Washington, where the nation’s first craft breweries were beginning to take hold.

After four years learning the trade, Varner came back to S.C.’scapital city and in 1995 opened Hunter-Gatherer, the popular south Main Street microbrewery and pub. There, Varner has personally brewed all of the company’s beer for the past 22 years.

But Varner wasn’t able to take his passion to the next level; brew pubs can sell only beer that is consumed on the premises. The newly renovated hangar will allow him to build a real commercial brewery.

“We’re going to distribute bottles and kegs throughout South Carolina,” he said.

The brewery will take up the entire 13,000-square-foot hangar and will include a tap room, event space, and an observation deck overlooking the commuter airport in the Rosewood neighborhood.

The brewery will feature a 527-gallon brew house – which is a cooker for the mash – a bottling and kegging line and about a dozen 10-foot-tall fermenting tanks. He can brew up to six batches of beer a day, but will likely start much smaller, he said

He also plans to conduct tours from the fermenting area to the laboratory, educating others on the brewing process down to the microscopic level.

“I want people to really learn about what we do,” he said. “And I want to make it compelling, so people will want to come back again.”

The right tenant

The brick, steel and glass hangar was built in 1929 by the Curtiss-Wright Co. at the beginning of the Great Depression. It was dedicated as Columbia Municipal Airport in 1930.

Curtiss-Wright was a merger of Glenn Curtiss and the Wright Brothers, who were fierce competitors in building aircraft in the early 20th century.

The company built only 30 or so of the vintage hangars across the country. Seven remain today, and Columbia’s is the only one that is being restored to its original condition, said Scott Linaberry, a general aviation pilot who purchased the hangar from Richland County, along with partners Will Brennan, Robert Lewis and Chris Rogers.

Linaberry has worked tirelessly since 2011 to raise money to save the hangar.

“It comes from my love of flying,” he said. “I’ve always loved this building, and there had been lots of attempts that didn’t work out.”

Linaberry originally launched a $5-million renovation plan for the hangar, planning to turn it into a restaurant and a space for events. But, eventually, the renovation costs were too high.

Now, with a brewery being, essentially, a light manufacturing plant requiring lots of open space and little interior renovation, those costs have dropped to $1.2 million.

“It took finding the right tenant,” Linaberry said. “I think the place will be a destination, not only for people in Columbia, but for pilots all over the state. Think of the fly-ins.”

Varner’s Hunter-Gatherer Brewery at Owens Field will bring to five the number of breweries in Columbia. There are 35 production breweries, and 13 brew pubs, said Brook Bristow, of Bristow Beverage Law of Charleston.

“And we will have four more in the next three months,” he said. “It continues to grow.”

Cross pollination

The new breweries were made possible by changes in South Carolina state law that allowed breweries to sell their product outside of their own establishments. Another change in the law has allowed for a blossoming of craft distilleries as well.

“When I first opened Hunter-Gatherer, there were about 500 craft breweries and brew pubs in the country,” Varner said. “Today, there are about 4,500.”

In addition to boosting the city’s brewing profile, the hangar is expected to help build the Rosewood neighborhood, in general, and Airport Boulevard in particular into more of a destination.

The adjacent Owens Field Park continues to be improved. And the City Roots sustainable urban farm has become a popular draw.

City Roots is directly across the street from the hangar. When the chain link fences around the hangar are removed, there should be a natural cross-pollination, Varner said.

“It makes all the sense in the world,” he said. “I’ve talked to the owners (Robbie and Eric McClam), and we plan to use their products with our food.”

For years, the hangar was home to “Skunkie,” a World War II-era B-25 bomber that was pulled from Lake Greenwood in 1983. Linaberry and members of the South Carolina Historic Aviation Foundation are restoring it in another, modern hangar at Owens Field.

He and Varner had toyed with the idea of incorporating the bomber into the brewery, “but it was just too big,” Linaberry said. “But we can always roll it out for special events and photo ops.”

This story was originally published January 21, 2017 at 7:23 PM with the headline "Renovations underway for Curtiss-Wright hangar."