The Austin-based Circle Brewing Company is one step closer to building a brewery in Elgin after the City Council on May 14 approved a Planned Development District agreement and financial incentives for the future business.

The Planned Development District agreement, which sets the development conditions and requirements within the district, will allow Circle Brewing to build a brewery and taproom and maintain livestock and farms to grow crops for brewing on a 22-acre site at the corner of Lexington Avenue and Louise Street in Elgin. The agreement also allows for a future entertainment venue to be built on the site to complement the brewery.

The council also approved a Chapter 380 agreement that will reimburse Circle Brewing up to $200,000 in future sales tax revenue generated by the project.

"This is an exciting project for the entire Elgin community," Mayor Chris Cannon said. “It is also particularly rewarding for us that it will be located in an older part of town that has not experienced much new development in recent years.”

Circle Brewing is planning to build an 18,000-square-foot building to house its brewery and ancillary uses, and use 12 acres on the site to raise crops to supply the brewing operation.

"We have always sought to create the very best beer using only the main four brewing ingredients: water, malt, hops and yeast,” said Ben Sabel, president of Circle Brewing. "Our new facility in Elgin will enable us to take that one step further by allowing us to not only grow our ingredients, but truly incorporate our brewing operations with sustainable agriculture techniques."

The city said in a statement that Circle Brewing’s Elgin facility will be the first brewery in the state to create beer from ingredients totally grown and brewed on site — from seed to pint glass.

"The Circle Project represents everything we are looking for with new businesses coming to Elgin," said Owen Rock, the city’s director of economic development. "New jobs and increased tax revenue, but most importantly, services and a unique experience for our residents."

Circle Brewing was founded in Austin in 2010 by Sable and Judson Mulherin. It’s an award-winning craft brewery that has built its customer base through emphasizing brewing with only the fewest ingredients possible, the city said.

In 2016, Circle Brewing won a gold medal in the historical beer category of the World Beer Cup, a prestigious competition held by the Brewers Association, for its Archetype Historical IPA, which the brewers created to taste exactly like an IPA would have tasted hundreds of years ago.

The company will maintain its operations at its Austin location at 2340 Braker Lane, and plans to begin construction on its Elgin facility this summer and be fully operational by the first quarter of 2020.

"The economic attributes of having an established business like Circle Brewing located here are obvious,” City Manager Tom Mattis said. “The fact that it will be a business that is totally exclusive to Texas makes it really special for us."