ST. JOSEPH -- Bad Habit Brewing has emerged as a possible buyer for the old St. Joseph City Hall, which has been unoccupied for over a year.

At their meeting Monday night, the city council approved negotiating with the brewery over the sale. No details about the sale or price are known at this time. The St. Joseph City Hall was recently listed for $569,000.

Aaron Rieland is the owner of Bad Habit, he says while negotiations are preliminary, the brewery does need some extra room.

"We need expanded room for the taproom, we get pretty packed every weekend, and we need expanded room for beer production."

Rieland says even though they're expanding they've never entertained the thought of leaving downtown St. Joseph. Saying they've had their eyes on the old city hall for a while now.

"[We've always wanted] a long relationship with the city of St. Joseph. We want to stay downtown, it has such a cool vibe right now, we don't want to move out of downtown, so we never really looked anywhere else. I drive by that building every day on my way to work, and it's always looked appealing."

The council discussed lowering the price at a meeting last month, however, decided to keep it as is. They were willing to negotiate with a buyer.

Back in April of 2016, Collegeville Community Credit Union announced plans to buy the building, but in July of that year, the credit union backed out of the sale.

Bad Habit has been at a space in the Mill Stream Shops at 15 East Minnesota Street since they opened in 2015.

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