The brick warehouse next to the First Tennessee Pavilion is scheduled for updating to house a new business.Chattanooga developer John Wise hopes to bring a new brewery to Chattanooga's Southside neighborhood in an old building saved by the historic preservation group Cornerstones.
Wise made the winning proposal to buy - for a nominal, undisclosed price - a brick warehouse built between 1870 and 1885 that was part of the Ross-Meehan Foundry. It stands next to the First Tennessee Pavilion across the street from Finley Stadium.
"We're going to move our corporate office in the front, and we're in negotiations with a brewery in the back," Wise said.
The Chattanooga developer already has other Southside projects, including a boutique bowling alley, new apartments and moving Nashville's Marathon Music Works into what formerly was The Jump Park, a trampoline park that closed.
Wise declined to name the brewery, which he said is a new to the beer-making scene.
"It'll do tastings and have a small food menu," Wise said.
The project will include a courtyard, Wise said.
"I think we got a really happy ending for the building," Cornerstones President Bob McNutt said.
The old, roughly 10,000- square-foot brick warehouse had part of its roof collapse in a storm.
The city and county owned the building, but city and county commissioners voted to give Cornerstones the building as surplus property so the nonprofit group could put out requests for proposals to find a new owner to preserve its historic character.
"Historic revitalization is an economic revitalization tool," McNutt said. "It's not just hugging old buildings; it's putting them back into use."
The project garnered interest from 25 different individuals and companies, said Cornerstones' Executive Director Ann Gray. Ideas for the space included membership-based gyms, two breweries, one distillery, restaurant and event space, and food markets. Nine proposals were submitted, she said, and Cornerstones narrowed that down to four finalists.
Wise wowed the selection committee, she said, partly by bringing a team of seven employees to make the pitch.
"He brought his whole team to the interview," Gray said.
Other factors in Wise's favor, she said, include that he could get to work quickly. Wise has done other Southside developments and has a metal fabrication shop that can add a clerestory, or roof windows, to the old foundry building.
"He's probably, you could say, the one who's really brought back this neighborhood," Gray said.
Wise expects that by January he will move the 11-employee corporate offices of Wise Properties and Wise Management and Construction into the front of the old building in a 4,000-square-foot, two-story space and the brewery would come later in the 6,000-square-foot one-story in the back.
"We love the area," Wise said. "The most we're excited about is the history of the building. The architecture is simple, but absolutely gorgeous."
The building shows up on an 1885 Sanborn Map of Chattanooga, McNutt said. The Sanborn Map company published maps of U.S. cities to assess fire insurance liability.
The foundry building could be even older, McNutt said, since it was part of the Wasson Car Co. It dates back to 1873, he said, and made the first open trolley cars for the first incline railway up the side of Lookout Mountain to Point Park.
"It was a local company. It was one of our largest employers," McNutt said. It was absorbed by the Ross Mehan foundry, he said, which lasted until the mid-1980s.
"The building is still in remarkably good shape for having been neglected the last 20 years," McNutt said.
Contact staff writer Tim Omarzu at tomarzu@timesfreepress.com or www.facebook.com/MeetsForBusiness or on Twitter @meetforbusiness or 423-757-6651.