Main Street Brewing Co.’s new outdoor space is nearly ready

When Belleville’s 4204 Main Street Brewing Co. hosts this year’s Ale Fest Saturday, it’ll also introduce the outdoor space owner Todd Kennedy and his employees have been working on for almost two months.

“It was 12, 14 hours a day, seven days a week for two months,” Kennedy said Wednesday as workers put the finishing touches on the space. “I just wanted something neat on the west end of Belleville. I’m really pleased.”

The change is drastic. A privacy fence now encloses the area off the venue’s patio that had once been choked with trees and undergrowth. There’s a large area for bean bag toss, ample seating around three fire pits, a bocce court and horseshoe pits, a pavilion and even a play set for children. Rope lights tied from tree to tree will illuminate the space at nighttime.

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After flirting with bankruptcy for weeks, Maryland Heights, Mo.-based SunEdison finally made the filing in New York City Thursday.

The solar power project developer began a buying spree two years ago that saw the firm spend more than $3 billion in takeovers and acquisitions. The rapid expansion turned out to be an over-extension that doomed the company as demand for solar projects worldwide began to cool off.

After filing for Chapter 11 protection Thursday, SunEdison shares were trading at around $0.34.

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If you own a 2.0-liter diesel Volkswagen, the company might offer to buy your car back.

The German automaker is in hot water over selling cars equipped with software to report artificially high fuel economy to circumvent strict American emissions rules.

Owners of Jettas, Golfs and Audi A3s should be on the lookout as VW could buy up to 500,000 of them sold since 2009. Cars also found to have the cheating software include larger Audi and Porsche SUVs, but VW doesn’t plan to buy those back.

How much might 500,000 cars cost? Around $1 billion.

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Upset over not having pumpkin spice-flavored snacks and drinks because it’s the off season? Here’s something to look forward to.

General Mills is about to turn out pumpkin spice Cheerios, perhaps with hopes of capitalizing on the success other brands have had by offering pumpkin spice anything the moment the air turns cool.

They’ll be on shelves around Labor Day. Meanwhile, Strawberry Cheerios are for sale now as a limited-time spring and summer flavor.

This story was originally published April 21, 2016 at 10:01 AM with the headline "Main Street Brewing Co.’s new outdoor space is nearly ready."