Mackensy Lunsford

mlunsford@citizen-times.com

ASHEVILLE - It may be hard to discern, but the ramshackle buildings off Old Lyman Street have lovely bones. Underneath layers of bright spray paint, a former tannery, adjoining offices, an old restaurant, a bathhouse and more await transformation.

These vestiges of industries past will soon be home to two of the vanguards of the new industrial revival of the River Arts District: 12 Bones Smokehouse, which is moving from its flagship Riverside Drive location, and Wedge Brewing, which is opening a second, smaller brewery.

Known as the Foundation, the 13-acre property where the two well-known businesses are staking a claim will also be home base to artists and other makers.

12 Bones, which remains open at Riverside Drive until the move, will occupy a former office and restaurant building, which shares a wall with the tannery. The Wedge will take over the latter side of the building with a brewery and event space. The two will also share a courtyard and common area.

Inside, the buildings will still display some period charm. Builders have left some exposed wood and are restoring an old safe, which 12 Bones co-owner Bryan King envisions as a small, if a bit odd, dining space.

"There's so much character — you can't rebuild that," said Brent Starck, a developer of the property with business partners Eddie Dewey and Chris Eller, together known as Foundation Studios. "And for us to grab almost 14 acres of property in the River Arts contiguous was incredible."

The Foundation property sits on and across Lyman Street from the French Broad River, affording a front-row view to the path of transformation the River Arts District Transportation Improvement Project will bring.

The sprawling RADTIP plans include street, sidewalk and greenway improvements along the French Broad. Road rerouting and a traffic circle will eat a fair portion of the property on which 12 Bones' flagship location is situated, essentially condemning its building in the name of progress.

Original 12 Bones owners Sabra Kelley and Tom Montgomery opened in a strategic location to catch traffic headed up Riverside Drive to the landfill. The brick and cinder-block building, once occupied by the Home Cooking Cafe and then by Daisy's Diner, was never pretty.

"That one looked like it would be cheap to rent, honestly," Kelley told the Citizen-Times three years ago, when the restaurant was transferred to current owners Bryan and Angela King. "That was right after the big flood, and the woman who had been there before was in arrears in her rent anyway, and was not coming back."

The building remains a River Arts icon, and a parking sign from the Home Cooking Cafe has a place on a wall inside 12 Bones. And remnants of the Daisy's Diner sign are on the front of the building in paint.

Progress is progress. But what's seemed a hard-luck situation for 12 Bones is likely to be a boon for the barbecue restaurant's business, said Bryan King.

"There's more opportunity here," he said. "It's a bigger, better place. This is what we needed to grow."

The new location for 12 Bones is twice the size, affording more space for smokers and a gleaming row of brand-new kitchen equipment. There's more capacity for catering, and almost double the seating.

The size of the building isn't its only benefit. After two years of searching, the Kings say the Foundation property is a dream location.

"There's no issue with parking, we have plenty of outdoor seating and it fits the aesthetic that we were looking for," Bryan King said. "But obviously the big kicker is being next to the Wedge. What goes better than beer and barbecue?"

Scoring anchor tenants like the Wedge and 12 Bones is a coup for Starck and his partners, who envision Foundation as a tourist destination where people come to eat and drink, and stay to spend money on the artists who will eventually populate the old, graffiti-covered buildings on the property.

As for that graffiti, some is staying. The Foundation partners worked with the city to authorize continued art projects on the walls of the designated buildings with a permission slip issued by Foundation Studios.

The city required a few rules, like no hate speech and limited hours for painting.

"Other than those rules, we intend to stay hands off," Starck said. "We view it as an art form and a cultural expression."

An outdoor skate park sits at the far end of the property, and an indoor skate park is in the works. Additionally, a 50,000-square-foot building is still up for grabs. Starck said that building represents the heart of the project, one that's taking shape right under his nose.

"We're having a blast thinking about it," he said. "How do we steward that property for the community we live in?"

For Foundation Studios, that involves curating a mix of businesses and artists, one that creates synergistic community spaces and encourages cross-pollination.

He and his partners are already doing that with the River Arts Maker Place, a Riverside Drive property opening this year where engineers will mingle with instrument makers and painters in a space equipped with state-of-the-art technology.

"Like in the RAMP, we'll do the same thing with the Foundation, with different kinds of artists and woodworkers, different blacksmiths and potters," Starck said.

And in food-focused Asheville, restaurants fit into that mix nicely.

"We have a theme of creating spaces to empower people to make stuff," Starck said. "The Wedge and 12 Bones, those are small business that are making things as well. They bring customers, so there's a financial sustainability piece to it."

Those businesses also create a so-called "third place," an environment that's neither work nor home where artists can gather and exchange ideas. "If we do our job right, it will be a pretty big tourist attraction we think, and that will help the makers and artists," Starck said.

If all goes well, both the Wedge extension brewery and 12 Bones will open January 2017. King hopes there will be no interruption in service at the Riverside restaurant beside the standard three-week winter break.

It's a short move — right down the street from the original location. But right now, it still feels worlds away.

Ten years ago, the Wedge building and 12 Bones represented the edge of the new frontier in Asheville. "Now this is the new frontier," King said.

But the RADTIP is changing the face of the River Arts District dramatically, Schaller said, even if it won't happen overnight.

"For me, it's good to be in a spot where it's going to take a while before it gets totally gentrified, even if we're doing it," he laughed. "But hopefully it's in the right way."

By moving their smokehouse, the Kings are carrying on a 12 Bones tradition of reviving underutilized space. But this time, they're in a building less likely to get overtaken by the progress they helped pioneer.

"We're excited and proud to be going somewhere that's embracing what made the River Arts what it is in the first place," Bryan King said. "You can't go to Charlotte and find some place like this. It's going to be a cool destination. It embodies what the River Arts tried to be in the beginning."

City using eminent domain at 12 Bones site

City project calls for demolition at 12 Bones, RAD warehouses