Katy’s JV Cardiff & Sons Rice Dryer becomes beer garden, museum, food hall and more
Katy developer and resident Hadi ‘Andrew’ Nurcahya is attempting to make the Cardiff & Sons rice dryer a staple of the community while honoring the history of the property.
The rice dryer, built in 1943, was purchased by Nurcahya in 2021. Nurcahya said he plans to revitalize the property to include a Rice Dryer Museum and a Katy, TX Gift Shop in partnership with the Katy Heritage Society, a beer garden. a food hall with seven to eight vendors, a co-working office, an event space and a common area with an open green space and stage.
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Nurcahya said the beer garden will be a “real” beer garden, with 9,000 square feet of indoor space and 24,000 square feet of outdoor space shaded under trees.
“A lot of people think of a beer garden as a long outdoor table on concrete,” Nurcahya said. “It’s really going to be under the trees, it’s very shady and it’s really going to be a garden.”
Though Nurcahya claims to be a history buff, he says he bought the property because he hasn’t had an estate as exciting as the rice dryers in his real estate career.
“I’ve only ever done the typical type of retail, office, and warehouse development, which is totally boring,” Nurcahya said.
Nurcahya said the key to developing the property is not altering the existing structure, which poses a development challenge.
“I’m just lucky to have been the person who actually lives nearby who knows what it is, who had the money to buy it outright at the time, with no credit or anything, and also the references and that had knowledge. how to do it,” Nurcahya said. “I’m in real estate, I do development, I love history, I just never had the opportunity to actually put the two together and this gave me the opportunity.”
Nurcahya said other amenities could potentially be added at a later date. The planned opening date for the property is March 21, 2023.
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