VALDOSTA — Valdosta is moving closer to getting a homegrown craft beer brewery.

The Georgia Beer Company is currently operating out of a garage in Clyattville, but the owners are looking to elevate the business — and South Georgia — through a new micro-brewery in Downtown Valdosta.

Owner Chris Jones and his business partner want to pull off a half-million-dollar renovation of the city’s old waterworks building downtown (off of West Hill Avenue at 109 S. Briggs St.). Once complete, the construction would transform the 100-year-old building into a craft-beer brewery and event center.

While beer cannot be sold at the facility, the business will offer tours and small samples of its beer onsite. The beer made there will be sold through distributors.

Several factors went into choosing Downtown Valdosta as the spot for the GBC micro-brewery, Jones said. The brewery will bring a one-of-a-kind product and attraction that is currently lacking in the area.

“By using local ingredients from South Georgia — such as pecans, cane syrup, raw honey, peaches, blueberries (and) watermelon — we can provide a product that people in this area aren’t used to having,” Jones said.

From chocolatey to citrusy, the GBC founders say they want their beers to pay homage to the entire state.

“One of the things that South Georgia doesn’t have is its own brewery. We have great breweries in Georgia, mainly in Atlanta and Savannah, but there’s nothing local,” Jones said.

“If you look at a map of Georgia, we’re in the middle of what we call the craft-beer desert. You have to drive all the way to Macon, which is over 120 miles, to get to the nearest craft brewery.

“There’s not that accessibility. You can’t go into the brewery and shake hands with the guy who makes your beer or suggest new beers, and that’s something that we want to provide to South Georgia.”

In addition to the opportunity to carve into an untapped market in South Georgia, Jones gave several other reasons why putting a micro-brewery downtown makes sense: Valdosta’s status as a transportation, education and military hub; a large, thriving population; and Jones and his business partner are VSU alumni.

“We did our formative years here in Valdosta, and it’s an underrepresented city,” said Jones, who graduated from VSU in 2009. “All of the numbers on paper made it a good place, not to mention the nostalgic attachment that we as alumni to VSU have.”

He said the micro-brewery will energize the local economy and improve the quality of life for residents.

“It gives residents in the community a third space,” Jones said. “You have home and you have work, but the brewery’s a place that you can come and spend time and you can tour the facility.”

Jones also hopes the brewery will not just be another business, but rather an integrated part of the community.

“Craft breweries nationally use their cause, which is to produce high-quality, fresh craft beer, to further other causes. In 2014, craft breweries around the country gave over $70 million dollars worth of charitable contributions,” he said.

“It’s a very involved industry in their respective communities, wherever they are in the country.”

Investors are already in place, and Valdosta City Council granted GBC a conditional use permit at its Dec. 8 meeting. Jones said the next step, after working out a few more financial details, is to bid out the task of renovating and constructing the brewery to contractors.

GBC is working with the Valdosta-Lowndes County Development Authority on the project through a public-private partnership.

For more information on GBC, visit www.georgiabeercompany.com.