"The first phase has been to clean it up, protect and preserve building and contents and the historical aspects," says Ken Halliday, managing director of Silver Ventures. "We're going to auction off a number of the items we determined we don't need to be part of the project moving forward." The equipment includes six lines of bottling, canning, labeling, conveying and other related equipment, more than 50 forklifts, lab equipment, memorabilia, trucks, storage tanks and pumps.

Halliday tells GlobeSt.com plans for redevelopment are in the early stages. "This is a large project, we're going to take our time," he says. "There are historical aspects of it that need to be paid attention to."

The site is situated north of the intersection of interstates 37 and 35 and it backs up to the San Antonio River. The broad redevelopment outline is a mixed-use project that incorporates the river. It will probably will include a residential component, he says, but, again, it's too soon to say what kind.