From empty warehouse to brewery incubator

NEW YORK (FOX 5 NEWS) - People who live in Copiague, Long Island, call a certain blighted warehouse an eyesore. It has been vacant for decades. Inside, it is littered with bottles and trash; the walls are sprayed with graffiti.

Babylon Industrial Development Agency has plans for the space. With U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer's help, the agency is asking the U.S. Economic Development Administration for federal funding to help turn it into the state's first brewery incubator. It would be a place where multiple brewers could brew on the same equipment.

Schumer compares it to the growing Greek yogurt industry and envisions the town of Babylon as the mecca of brewing in New York State.

Phil Ebel with Great South Bay Brewery hopes to be the sponsor of the project to help aspiring brewers make quality beer. The incubator would have a tasting room, production area, storage and loading dock.

Sen. Schumer plans on getting the grant by this fall. He hopes by this time next year it'll look completely different once the building process gets underway.