Pearl Brewing Company
The site owned and operated by the Pearl Brewing Company was originally known as both the J. B. Behloradsky Brewery (1881–1883) and the City Brewery. Privately held and poorly run for two years, the City Brewery was purchased by an investment group in 1883. The investment group was composed of local businessmen and several moguls already involved in brewing at San Antonio's other major brewery, the Lone Star Brewing Company. Together they formed the San Antonio Brewing Company (1883–1888), and began to raise capital to fully restart and improve operations at the brewery. In 1886, after three years, the company had secured the necessary capital and began full-time operations at the brewery again. The name San Antonio Brewing Association was used as a parent to the brewing company, since it also managed some of the founding members' other business interests. Functionally, the business structure worked, but it caused confusion with city officials, customers, and business partners; therefore, in the end, the investment group dissolved the San Antonio Brewing Company and used the San Antonio Brewing Association (1888–1918) name for all operations and business transactions. Thus, in seven years, the same brewery had three different names. In addition, the name City Brewery was frequently used. The first logos used for the San Antonio Brewing Company/Association even featured the name City Brewery in the logo. City Brewery was carried over from the Behloradsky days and was used until the beginning of Prohibition in 1918.
Pearl Brewing Company
Toward the end of 2002, Silver Ventures, a San Antonio-based investment firm, purchased the brewery site. Fortunately, the company has big plans for many of the current structures on the brewery property, with the hopes to attract businesses as well as River Walk tourists. The dream of Silver Ventures is that once completed, the former brewery will be a village within eyesight of the skyscrapers of Downtown San Antonio. In a local article, Bill Shown, the development's managing director, described an area that would house an event hall, schools, and retail, office, and residential space. The idea is to create an area where people can live, shop, and work, yet a community close-knit enough where residents know the shop owners.
The first phase of rehabilitation and restoration included the garage, a large brick storage shed, and the former hospitality room/stables. The brewery's garage, which was built in 1939, houses the Aveda Institute, a global company focusing on environmentally friendly personal products. In the same building as Aveda is a cafe named Texas Farm to Table, which only uses Texas-grown ingredients. The renovation updated the building to meet the current business needs, but still maintains the brewery feel to the exterior by reusing beer storage tanks as landscaping water tanks and a few of the garage's old red pumps.