"I actually opened up my business with four spots," Mark Lortz told WCPO. He was talking about the parking he had when The Common Beer Company opened on East Main Street eight years ago.
That has changed this fall. Crews are working on a lot of about 130 spaces behind The Mason Grill. Next door to the brewery, a building more than 150 years old is being finished as a restaurant with a window that will pass food straight into Lortz's taproom.
People have talked about reviving downtown Mason for close to two decades. The first visible results are all landing on one short stretch of East Main, and the projects there are being built to connect with each other.
Three Doors in a Row
Downtown's newest pieces sit on almost back-to-back addresses:
| Address | Business | Where it stands this fall |
|---|---|---|
| 124 E. Main St. | The Mason Grill | Open. The new city lot is going in behind it |
| 126 E. Main St. | The Common Beer Company | Open. Owner Mark Lortz has run the brewery here for eight years |
| 128 E. Main St. | The Rare | Expected to open in November 2026 |
| 207 E. Main St. | Wildflower Cafe | Open, a little farther down the street |
The plans for The Rare and the lot treat this block as one evening out. You park once, eat at one place, end up at the place next door, and walk back to your car without moving it. Lortz described that hope directly to WLWT. He wants the bigger lot to let visitors park once, explore downtown on foot, and give other entrepreneurs a reason to invest in Mason.
The Rare Kept the Building on Purpose
The Rare is the new address on the block. It's also the project that ties the block together most literally.
Nikki and Josh Logsdon, a local couple, bought the building at 128 E. Main St. in 2022. WhatNow reported that they have put millions of dollars into restoring it. Demolition work inside began in January. The Logsdons told WCPO that tearing the building down was never an option, even though it would have been cheaper and faster.
"That's not why we worked so hard to buy this building and to secure it because we wanted to be able to keep this piece of downtown Mason," Nikki Logsdon said in that WCPO story. She also called it "a monumental project."
According to the Cincinnati Business Courier report carried by Local 12, the building will hold a 7,000-square-foot American bistro. Here's what is known so far:
- The kitchen: Chef Max Wagner, formerly executive chef at Pepp & Dolores, is in charge. He's working on an approachable bistro menu, and one dish he has described is a Cincinnati chili made with braised short rib and aged cheddar.
- The layout: The restaurant takes up the first floor. Upstairs is a second-floor event space with elevator access for private gatherings.
- The neighbor: A food window at The Rare will serve customers at The Common Beer Company next door at 126 E. Main St.
- The timing: Opening is expected in November 2026. No exact date or hours had been announced as of the latest reports.
A brewery that started with four parking spaces will soon have a full kitchen on the other side of a shared wall. On Oct. 14, a city public notice listed a requested variance for a projecting blade sign at 128 E. Main St., one of the small steps a building takes just before it opens.
Behind the Grill, a Lot Built to Hold a Crowd
On the back side of the same block, the City of Mason broke ground in mid-October on the first construction project of the Mason Mile effort. WLWT described a larger lot replacing the existing one on city-owned property behind The Mason Grill. Plans include sidewalks, landscaping, bike parking, stormwater improvements and a wider entrance from Mason-Montgomery Road.
Former Mason City Council member Mark Haake, who worked on the downtown effort, told WLWT the lot is meant to do more than store cars.
"So this is going to be not only parking, but it's also going to be an event space," Haake said. "So we can set up portable stages. We can have food truck rallies."
That changes what the block can host. Picture a stage set up behind the Grill, a brewery with a kitchen window next door, and a restored historic building with a second-floor event room. Together they form a small district that can handle an evening event, something downtown Mason hasn't had the space to do.
The timing is still taking shape:
- Mid-October 2026: Groundbreaking and the start of site work. WLWT reported the groundbreaking on Wednesday, Oct. 14, and WCPO reported crews at work by Thursday.
- Oct. 27, 2026: The city's deadline for bids on the lot's separate electrical and lighting package, which covers streetlights, foundations, power hookups, control panels and transformer service.
- By the end of 2026: The first layer of asphalt, according to the city's construction schedule as reported by WLWT.
- Spring and summer 2027: Work continues in spring, with the lot expected to be substantially complete by summer.
WCPO reported the lot could open as early as the end of this year. WLWT's account of the city's schedule is more detailed, putting the first asphalt layer at year's end and the finished project next summer. The safest plan is to expect an active work zone behind East Main through the holidays and into spring.
Why It Took This Long to Get Here
The block is moving now because the plan behind it is finally on the books. The Mason Mile covers the downtown corridor along Main Street and Reading Road, roughly from Heritage Oak Park to Tylersville Road. Its stated goals are supporting local businesses, making the area safer and easier to walk, and adding places to shop, eat and gather.
Local 12 reported that Mason City Council unanimously adopted the Mason Mile Master Plan on Nov. 10, 2025, along with measures advancing a downtown zoning overhaul. In August 2026, the city approved funding for a traffic study, a streetscape design and a parking-management strategy. According to MADE CDC's Mason Mile page, that work will feed a five-year plan for carrying out and paying for future improvements. It's planning money. It doesn't set a finish date for the corridor, and new streetscapes aren't under construction yet.
The council is already weighing the next step. At its Aug. 24, 2026 work session, council discussed expanding an inventory of East Main utilities to cover the wider Mason Mile, and noted the disruption that burying utilities could cause for businesses.
Business owners on the block describe the wait in years. "There's been a long pause of 18-19 years that we finally have boots on the ground back here," Wildflower Cafe owner Todd Hudson told WCPO. Speaking to WLWT, Hudson said customers want the kind of shopping and dining they find in Loveland and Madeira closer to home: "They want to be able to come, you know, drive a mile down the street, go to a nice area in their hometown and spend their dollars in their own town."
Haake told WCPO the plan is built to grow one piece at a time: "Get one piece in and then hopefully another supports another and back-and-forth." On East Main, that has been literal. A brewery built a following with four parking spaces, a restored building moved in next door with a window into it, and a lot is going in behind both.
Dec. 4 at Downtown Plaza
The first holiday season with all of this under way peaks on one night. The City of Mason's Tree Lighting Ceremony is set for Friday, Dec. 4, 2026, from 6 to 8 p.m. at Downtown Plaza, 115 Reading Road. It's the downtown public event listed on the city's December calendar.
If The Rare opens on schedule in November, this year's tree lighting will be the first time the ceremony crowd can head over to East Main for a bistro dinner or a pint at Common Beer with a kitchen window right beside it. The lot behind the Grill will still be a construction site, so check the City of Mason's website for event parking details closer to the date. Next year's tree lighting may be the first one with a finished lot designed to host a crowd.
For homeowners near downtown Mason, a revived block of East Main is one of the things that can shape what a home is worth over the next few years. If you'd like to see where your home stands as the Mason Mile takes shape, Angel Apking can walk you through it. Request a free home valuation, and we'll look at your home with what's happening on East Main in mind.
