Ground is broken on the construction site for the new Bricktown Brewery and Adelaide Hall. The iconic building burned down last year, but now Griffin Properties is working with the owners to bring it back. Ahead of a groundbreaking ceremony on Monday, Ozarks at Large’s Jack Travis got in touch with Griffin’s vice president of property management, Jaina Mundy, to talk about the project and the progress they’ve already made.
Jaina Mundy: We actually started construction toward the end of December, so we’re a little bit ahead of the game. We expect that it’s going to take us right about a year to complete. You know, the building when we rebuild, it will look a lot like the old building. We are trying to keep that rich, historic significance that it had before. The look. It's going to be a beautiful building. The downstairs will still be the restaurant and bar area, and upstairs will remain Adelaide Hall.
Jack Travis: And there are renderings of the new building available online. You said that you wanted to maintain that historic character. How did you work with the architect to be sure that that was maintained?
Mundy: Yeah, we do. We did have information on the old building itself, and I actually was not part of that process. But I know the owners in Bricktown and Chase Garrett, who is the architect, put a lot of time and effort to make the new structure appear as close to the one that burned in the fire. So I know that they took a lot of time and effort and energy to give it as much of that same feel as possible.
Travis: And are you a Fort Smith resident?
Mundy: I am, I was actually married in that building. So it’s very close, near and dear to my heart as well.
Travis: Oh, wow. Yeah, that’s very special. So are you personally excited to see this spot come back to town?
Mundy: I may be one of the most excited in Fort Smith. I just love the building. You know, I’ve been with Griffin since almost 1989. I did leave once or twice and come back, but I’ve been part of Griffin for a very long time and downtown is near and dear to my heart. I also serve on the board for Main Street Fort Smith because I just care so much about downtown. Griffin has always had a passion for downtown, and that kind of carried over to me as well. And so it’s just very important for me personally to see this come back. And I’m just thankful that we have the relationship with Bricktown that we do, that it’s as important to them as it is to us. And I really cannot wait for the ribbon cutting to happen and open the doors.
Ozarks at Large transcripts are created on a rush deadline. Copy editors utilize AI tools to review work. KUAF does not publish content created by AI. Please reach out to kuafinfo@uark.edu to report an issue. The audio version is the authoritative record of KUAF programming.
