During Tuesday morning’s meeting, the Brownwood City Council ratified the Brownwood Municipal Development District board action to approve a Building Improvement Incentive Program grant not to exceed $50,000 to Brownwood Enterprises, LLC for a building located at 114 Center Avenue.
The facility sustained significant damage during a fire in October 2025, at the site of the former Lucille + Mabel Kitchen and Libations. Ten additional tenants, including the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, were housed in the building. Damage affected multiple floors, with the most extensive damage and smoke impacts on the first floor and smoke-related impacts on the second and third floors.
The program grant request for remediation of the second and third floors to benefit multiple tenants displaced by the fire. Those renovations are currently underway, and damaged equipment from the fire is still being removed from the first floor.
The property owner applied for an additional BIIP to support cleanup and repairs to the first floor restaurant space as well as remediation work required to meet IICRC standards.
Deputy City Manager Ray Tipton told the Council Tuesday, “Our goal is to make sure that building is occupied because I don’t think we would want a building in the middle of the Downtown Plan area to be completely vacant and unoccupied.”
Council member Draco Miller Jr. stated he felt if the building is insured, the grant was not needed, but if the building is not insured it would be beneficial. Miller asked Tipton the status of the grant dependent upon insurance, and Tipton explained, “{The BMDD) does not require them to give us their source of how they’re paying for repairs, we’re only looking at the end result. Whether they have insurance or not wouldn’t impact the rules of our application process. How they’re paying isn’t really relevant to our application typically, because we’re giving them an incentive to make a decision they wouldn’t make otherwise regardless of the source of income. The result of this and the goal of the MDD is to make this building occupiable. If he was borrowing money to leverage it and 100 percent financed the entire project, which happens, it’s the same metric. The loan may have covered the entire project, but the grant still goes back to the owner regardless.”
The proposed work includes:
• Cleaning and repairing HVAC equipment
• Removal and replacement of six A/C units
• Cleaning and deodorizing all A/C ducts
• Cleaning and deodorizing carpets, walls, and hard surfaces on all affected floors
• Additional cleaning of any areas impacted by the fire in accordance with IICRC requirements
Once remediation is complete, displaced office tenants will be able to move back into the spaces they currently lease.
Estimated cost for the second and third floor renovations are approximately $50,490, estimated cost for the first floor cleanup and HVAC repairs is approximately $51,400. The estimated completion date is sometime in April, depending on the floor and work phase.
Tipton added that when the building is serviceable once more, which tenants would return and which would be new was unknown.
Also Tuesday, Council approved on first reading, after a public hearing, an ordinance to annex 3.27 acres of land on CC Woodson Road, known as the “Borrow Pit,” from the BMDD. The BMDD Board approved the agreement on Feb. 24.
Council also approved tax-exempt financing being undertaken by Howard Payne University for the purpose of financing an energysavings system and HVAC improvements on campus. The financing involves a loan from Prosperity Bank to Anson Education Facilities Corporation in a principal amount not to exceed $2.13 million and a corresponding loan from the Corporation to the University in the same amount. The City is not being asked to incur any financial obligation, and the loans will not constitute a debt or liability of the City.
Council also approved a resolution authorizing City Manager Marshal McIntosh to execute an agreement with TxDOT for a temporary road closure in the 200 block of Austin Avenue on April 19. The road will be closed for approximately 30 minutes for a photo shoot to commemorate the 150th anniversary of First Baptist Church in Brownwood.