After the real estate bubble burst four years ago, entrepreneur Cory Fogarty went back to a business he knew from his college days.

Fogarty, a 1987 Warwick High School grad, and a partner opened a restaurant in Pensacola, Fla., that boasted 110 beers on draft, gourmet pizza and a stage for live music.

The business took off, and soon a second Hopjacks Pizza Kitchen & Taproom opened in Mobile, Ala.

Now tired of the Gulf Coast, Fogarty is ready to return home.

"The Lancaster market, in just the past two to three years, the business climate has grown spectacularly," Fogarty said.

On Wednesday, he announced plans to become a part of that.

Fogarty hopes to open his "Blacksheep Barleyhouse" in a 10,000-square-foot location at North Queen and East Chestnut streets. The corner retail space is being built into the new Red Rose Transit Authority parking garage.

His plans are based on his Pensacola model, with 100 beers on tap, a wood-fired pizza oven and a stage for live blues and alternative music. He hopes to open in late fall.

Fogarty's proposal was presented to the RRTA board at its meeting Wednesday evening.

David Kilmer said he has been negotiating with Fogarty for months to lease the space originally planned for the Lancaster Museum of Art.

"I think it's going to be a prime addition to downtown Lancaster that everybody will be proud of. It will help tie the 200 and the 300 blocks of North Queen Street together. It will become a destination," Kilmer said of Blacksheep Barleyhouse.

But because the $18.4 million garage was built with federal funds, RRTA is required to follow federal rules. The transit agency must advertise the space for lease to offer others the opportunity to submit proposals.

Kilmer said two previous proposal requests for private-sector development failed to draw any proposals.

An RRTA board vote to lease the space to Fogarty could be held next month, Kilmer said.

The leasing announcement came Wednesday as workers put the last of the precast concrete sections in place on the seven-story, 395-space garage.

A crane used in the "topping out" has been blocking a lane of East Chestnut Street in recent weeks. Kilmer said disassembly of that crane will likely begin soon, and the crane may be gone by the end of the week. The traffic lane may be open by the beginning of the work week, he said.

The project is slated for completion in mid-August, he said.

That's when Fogarty could begin finishing the space where his restaurant and bar would be located.

He has high hopes for the site.

"This is the first of a chain," Fogarty declared Wednesday, speaking from his Pensacola home. The Lancaster location will ultimately be the flagship of the restaurant chain, he hopes.

Fogarty said his initial goal is to enhance the city's downtown entertainment offerings. And, the variety of microbrewed beer he plans to have on tap will be unrivaled in the area.

"The beer market in Lancaster is craving this," he said.

The two-story atrium space in the authority's Queen Street Station II project originally was designed as an entrance gallery for the art museum. It would be connected to the adjacent museum-owned building where the art museum planned to relocate.

Citing financial difficulties, the art museum backed out of those plans early last year. A few months later, the former Empire TV & Appliance building, which the museum owned, collapsed during excavation for the new garage.

Kilmer said he showed the retail space to only a few other prospective tenants.

"Until the precast started going up, people were really leery of the project going through after the building collapse," Kilmer said.

"Now people can see it what it is and see it is going to be a real nice addition to the city."

Fogarty plans to lease part of the building basement, the entire first floor and part of the second floor, Kilmer said. He will have the option to lease the remaining 1,500 square feet of the second floor.

bharris@lnpnews.com