Waco Ale

A 14,500-square-foot renovation at 1004 Franklin Ave in Waco is registered with TDLR to convert a shell building into a brewery and restaurant. The project, filed under the name Waco Ale Franklin Ave, is estimated to cost $750,000. This places the investment above the median estimated cost for similar renovation and alteration filings in McLennan County, which stands at $278,572. The scheduled build window is 212 days, longer than the county median of 122 days for this type of work.

The work is privately funded on private land for private use. Austin Brock is listed as the owner and developer of record. Scales Engineering serves as the design firm, a practice that has six other TDLR-registered projects totaling $6,875,000, including sites in Jarrell, Benbrook, and Woodway. Martin Randell Stumberg is the registered accessibility specialist for the project. The site is located in the Downtown area of Waco, outside the FEMA 1-percent-annual-chance floodplain.

The project was registered with TDLR in September 2025 with a target completion date of May 2026. The filing indicates construction was to begin in October 2025. However, no plan review or inspection has been recorded since registration. Therefore, whether the project proceeded according to schedule is not confirmed in the public record. The TDLR status remains Project Registered, but the absence of inspection data means the physical state of the site is not verified by these filings.

The estimated cost of $52 per square foot is below the county median of $96 per square foot for renovation and alteration projects. This lower unit cost, combined with the larger total square footage of 14,500, distinguishes this filing from the typical smaller-scale renovations in the county, where the median size is 4,000 square feet. The scope of converting a shell building into a functional brewery and restaurant suggests a significant interior build-out rather than a minor cosmetic update.

Other registered projects in the same downtown area include the Baylor University Tidwell Bible Building renovation and the Patt Neff Hall renovation. Nearby existing businesses include the Dr Pepper Museum and Cafe Cappuccino. The area profile for ZIP code 76701 indicates a population of about 1,732 and a median household income of $24,593, with housing predominantly renter-occupied. These Census estimates provide context for the local demographic landscape surrounding the Franklin Avenue site.