Who’s coming downtown
› 254-room Westin Hotel in the Gold Building on Pine Street› Shula’s Steak House in the former Gilman’s Paint building on Pine Street› Pinkberry yogurt shop in the CitiPark building on Chestnut Street› Peet’s Coffee & Tea in the CitiPark building on Chestnut Street› Millennium Bank downtown branch on Chestnut Street› At least three other new retailersSource: Defoor Brothers Development
If you want to go
Tickets for Saturday’s gala event can be purchased at defoorbrothers.com. Proceeds benefit WTCI-TV.
As office, hotel, restaurant and nursing home developers, Byron and Ken Defoor have brought more than $100 million of commercial building projects to East Brainerd, Hixson and other suburban sites over the past three decades.
But at the urging of their children, the Defoor brothers turned their attention a few years ago toward Chattanooga's central city.
"The Millennials and next generation of our family were the ones who brought us downtown and asked us to consider doing inner-city work," Byron Defoor said Monday. "When Fletcher Bright approached us about selling some properties he owned downtown it seemed to all fall into place."
After buying the vacant Gold Building at Pine and M.L. King Boulevard and the Pioneer Bank and Citico parking garage, the Defoors last year began refurbishing a three-block area along Chestnut and Pine streets into a new luxury hotel, entertainment, housing and retail complex.
The Defoors are converting the 10-story Gold Building built as the headquarters of BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee into a 254-room Westin Hotel with a 10,000-square-foot ballroom and 24 meeting rooms. As the brothers did with the Ruth's Chris Steak House in their Embassy Suites hotel on Shallowford Road, the Defoors are bringing the upscale Shula's Steak House into the former Gilman's Paint building across the street from the new hotel.
"Ruth's Chris helped make the Embassy a destination hotel, and based upon our experience there, I would be afraid to bring in a luxury hotel without a high-end steakhouse," Defoor said.
In the CitiPark building and the Pioneer Bank building the Defoors acquired on either side of the 800 block of Chestnut Street, a half dozen new retailers are scheduled to open by next spring.
The planned $84 million upgrade of the downtown area is still underway, but next week the 800 block of Chestnut Street will reopen to traffic after getting a new face lift over the past four months.
"We hope to have all of the retail open by next May and open the Westin Hotel in June," Defoor said. "Along with the planned restoration of the Read House, this should be a tremendous boost for our downtown. This is our gateway into downtown and we think it's going to be great for the city."
To mark next week's reopening of the 800 block of Chestnut Street, a benefit for WTCI-TV is planned Saturday night with Arlo Guthrie, Fletcher Bright and the Dismembered Tennesseans and Priscilla and Little Rickee. The open-air celebration (or under tents on the 800 block of Chestnut Street if it rains) is honoring Fletcher Bright on behalf of the PBS affiliate in Chattanooga.
The Saturday event will feature the redesigned and re-purposed Pioneer Building alleyway and guests will be treated to some samples from a Steak and Raw Bar provided by the Shula's Steakhouse set to open next spring. The festivities also will include the chance for some lucky guest to win a 2016 convertible Porsche 911, a signed 1972 Miami Dolphins helmet and other prizes, courtesy of the event hosts, the DeFoor Brothers, and sponsors Porsche of Chattanooga and Rone Regency Jewelers.
U.S. Sen. Bob Corker, a former Chattanooga mayor, will be at Saturday's event and Corker's chief of staff, Todd Womack, will serve as master of ceremonies for the evening.
"Senator Corker was at the forefront of Chattanooga's revitalization as a successful developer and a committed mayor," Bryron and Ken Defoor said in a statement. "We are thrilled that he will be helping celebrate this key addition to the newly redesigned City Centre as we honor Fletcher Bright, one of the most prominent real estate development professionals in the Southeast."
Contact Dave Flessner@timesfreepress.com or at 757-6340.