Downtown Rochester may have a beer-coffee brewery soon

A cocktail lounge. A microbrewery. A grocery store.

One of these business ideas from local entrepreneurs will earn free rent at 155 St. Paul St. The three ideas were named finalists for the Retailent Rochester contest Wednesday night and will now go before a panel of judges to decide who is the ultimate winner.

The three businesses became finalists after giving 5-minute presentations on their business plans to a public crowd Wednesday night. After the presentations, almost 140 people voted and decided Split Batch, Love Local and The Spirit Room would move one step closer to free rent.

Split Batch is a beer brewery that specializes in craft beer mixed with high quality coffee. Jon Mervine, Jarred Foster and Wade Reed are heading the company. Each of the three have experience in either brewing, coffee roasting or serving cafe-style food.

"What we want to do is take our three passions and merge them and create a great experience," Reed told the audience Wednesday.

The Retailent Rochester contest seeks to find one business to set up shop at 155 St. Paul St. as part of a larger plan to give the St. Paul Quarter neighborhood of downtown Rochester a facelift. The plan also includes offering loft-style apartments at the same property that houses the eventual Retailent Rochester winner.

The contest is a co-organized by Hive Properties, Rochester Local Capital, the Rochester Young Professionals, and Steinmetz Planning Group. The organizations hope to host a second and third round of this contest in different parts of downtown later next year.

Retailent Rochester is the second contest for downtown space this year. Earlier this year, the Young Entrepreneurs Academy named Dani Polidor its first-ever Race for the Space winner. Polidor plans to open CitySense, a custom furniture store, in early 2016.

Molly Gaudioso, community planner for Steinmetz, said the Retailent winner will also open in early 2016, but must first go before a panel of judges.

The judges are Tapas 177's Demetrio Cavatassi, Five Star Bank's Chris Humphrey, Hive Properties President Dan Morgenstern, Hart's Local Grocery's Glenn Kellogg, Sirius Change owner Suzanne Mayer, Woods Oviatt Gilman's Nathanial Bank and Jason Haremza, a senior planner for the city of Rochester.

Allison Wassink, who is hoping to open Love Local, said she's nervous about presenting her plan to the judges.

Love Local is a grocery store that will feature only food from central and western New York farmers. It will also feature a cafe and in-store cooking demonstrations.

Wassink said she wants to open at 155 St. Paul St. because hundreds of people will soon move downtown and will need a place to buy fresh, local groceries.

"Unfortunately, the closest grocery store is one mile away," Wassink said, adding that without a nearby grocery store, people might shy away from the St. Paul Quarter.

Wassink and the beer-coffee guys will face Jacob Rakovan and Rachel McKibbens, who want to open The Spirit Room, a cocktail lounge that will showcase local literary and art talent.

McKibbens said cocktails and art is an event she has held at her home for four years with great success. She said she wants to move it to an actual retail space because there's always tons of dishes in the kitchen after hosting the event.

McKibbens said she believes the two would work well outside her home and in downtown Rochester.

"Who knew books and booze went so well together?" she said.

Although there will be one winner, Morgenstern announced Wednesday that all the runner-up businesses will be open to fill space at a Hive property at discounted rent.

KJBROOKS@GANNETT.COM