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Memphis embraced a buyout of the former Coors brewery in Hickory Hill with open arms and a $6 million property tax break Wednesday.

City Brewing Co. of La Crosse, Wis., won easy approval of a $41 million plan to restore the brewery at 5151 E. Raines to full production with 500 employees in five years or less.

A contract beverage producer without a brand of its own, City Brewing was awarded a 15-year freeze on property taxes by a unanimous vote of the Memphis-Shelby County Industrial Development Board. Abated taxes would be recouped from other tax revenues generated by the plant in about two years and ultimately dwarfed by spin-offs from a $29 million a year payroll.

“This project had one of the highest (benefit-to-cost) ratios I’ve ever seen,” said Mayor A C Wharton, citing an IDB report that projected more than $5 in tax benefits for each $1 in cost.

City Brewing president and CEO George Parke said officials hope to close a $30 million purchase of Hardy Bottling Co. in April and produce beer and other beverages at their Blues City Brewery by July.

Parke told a crowd at City Hall that buying the Memphis plant and investing $11 million in it made more sense than expanding breweries in La Crosse and Latrobe, Pa., or building a new packaging facility out west.

Thepany produces beer, flavored malt beverages and nonalcoholic drinks under contracts with brands familiar and obscure. Officials don’t identify thepany’s clients, but Parke said some are growing at a 15-20 percent annual clip and City Brewing has been turning down contracts for the past two years.

That growth will find a home in the 40-year-old Memphis facility, built by Schlitz and later used to brew Stroh’s before switching to Coors. Parke said officials envision Memphis, with its transportation and logistics connections, bing a gateway to western U.S. and South American markets.

Thepany has tailored its wage and benefits package to a union-type scale, with wages averaging $41,706 a year and benefits running another 40 percent. Ninety percent of jobs will require a high school diploma or GED.

Parke said thepany reassured unions in La Crosse and Latrobe that the Memphis deal isn’t designed to undercut those plants, which are at full capacity.

“This is not a ploy toe down and have a third facility to pay lower wages in the South,” Parke said. “We want people to be proud to work for us, good benefits, a living wage and be able to support a family.”

Carolyn Hardy, the former plant manager who led an ownership group that kept the plant afloat after Coors left in 2006, said good jobs and business integrity topped her wish list for a new owner.

“George and City Brewing have an exciting vision for Memphis,” Hardy said.

Hardy will work for City Brewing for a year as a consultant during the transition. Under herpany, Chism Hardy Enterprises, the brewery had been idled and the plant became a contract packager of nonalcoholic beverages.

Wharton lavished praise on Hardy for keeping the plant going despite adversity, including damage from a tornado that ravaged Hickory Hill in February 2008.

Yuengling, a Pennsylvania-based brewer, made a legitimate offer for the brewery last fall, but buyer and seller couldn’t work out the details, Hardy said. She couldn’t discuss particulars because of a nondisclosure agreement.

Few obstacles remain in the way of the transaction. City Brewing needs a city sewer upgrade and a state Department of Health and Environment brownfield designation for the site.

Thepany and the IDB agreed to cooperate on an environmental assessment of a small part of the site where chlorinatedpounds have been found in shallow ground water.

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