Joy Leibman and Daniel Gelb inherited an unusual legacy from their father, real estate investor Howard Gelb, when he died four years ago at the age of 96.

They and their four siblings now own roughly a third of the 158-year-old Hamm’s Brewery campus on St. Paul’s East Side.

Hamm’s and Stroh’s beers no longer bump down the bottling line — the last Stroh’s rolled out of the brew house in 1997 — though there’s still alcohol made on site.

The Flat Earth Brewing microbrewery and the 11 Wells distillery have taken roost in recent years in the city-owned portion of the former brewery campus across the street.

Instead of beer makers, the Gelb family company, Everest LLC, has mostly drawn “creatives” and niche industries — modern painters, a call center, a vintage clothing collector, a hospital laundry service, the Endurance United urban trail and outdoor fitness group, a trucking outfit, a used car dealer and the Twin Cities Trapeze Center.

That’s right — Hamm’s Brewery is home to a flying trapeze and circus school for students ages 6 to adult.

“We have tremendously different users,” Gelb said. The siblings fully expect to add even more color to their crew soon.

On a recent Thursday afternoon, Everest LLC opened its latest addition — nearly 30,000 square feet of new studio and office space overlooking the East Side.

The Gelb family has fully remodeled the top floor of a separate, more central building nearby on Minnehaha Avenue — the Everest Studios at the Historic Hamm’s Brewery, formerly known as the Everest Arts and Science Center.

Once a cold, cavernous storage area short on natural light, the third floor has been fully insulated, heated and segmented into 25 work rooms, with LED lighting and new windows, some with views of the downtown skyline.

The work was primarily done by Sever Construction of Edina. The Gelb family declined to discuss the price.

Monthly rents range from $390 to $1,490, and $9.82 to $12.09 per square foot.

Leibman recalled when the giant space held the occasional artistic reading or recital.

Until now, however, it was never ready for year-round use.

“The building has been in our family for 20 years, and we waited until the time is right,” she said.

By that she means the family had long planned to complete the building’s transformation into a hub for creative tenants, but the economy hit the floor around 2008.

“We didn’t think we were taking a huge leap of faith because we’ve had the other two floors leased forever, but the great recession came,” Gelb said.

These days, things are looking brighter.

In fact, five of the 25 rooms are leased already, by a wedding planner, a painter, a photographer and other low-intensity tenants, or as Gelb puts it, “service businesses that are creative and have their own niche.”