Goshen developer to turn old power station into microbrewery and restaurant

Jesse Sensening is overseeing the project to transform the old NIPSCO power station into a microbrewery and restaurant and to draw people to the historic waterway.

“Goshen’s got a lot of redevelopment going on downtown and especially along the mill race, so that was a big draw for us to take all this time and energy, in an older building,” Sensening told WSBT.

When it’s all said and done Sensening says he wants to restore the building to its original look, using a lot of the existing bricks and timber.

The new building will be called the Goshen Brewing Company and will serve craft beer and food. The restaurant will be family friendly and have an outdoor patio by the waterway.

Early on in deciding what to do with the building, there had been some discussion by the city about the possibility of having it demolished and then cleared and cleaned up, and just selling the property itself.

Back in 2012, the city spent $1.5 million on a Brownfield project, to remove contaminated soil from the site. The city felt it was worth saving because of its historic ties to the city.

“There was a lot of push to tear down the building and create something new there,” Becky Hershberger, a Brownfield project coordinator explained.  “We knew there was some significance to what was there, we wanted to see new life brought back to it.”

Sensening says he could have easily gone to another location, or torn down the building to start over.

“But for me, my vision was to take an older building and turn it around.”

The new brew pub is expected to open next Spring.