Fast fact
Fidelity Trust Co. founder John Crabtree built the structure at 720 Cherry St. in 1920.
A historic downtown Chattanooga building that housed a real estate company for nearly a century has been refurbished into the new home of the Hamilton County Public Defender's Office.
The building at 720 Cherry St., which long held Fidelity Trust Co., has undergone a $750,000 makeover to hold the office's 30-person staff, which includes 16 lawyers.
"It's great space," said Public Defender Steve Smith about the revamped offices, which he believes will make it easier to recruit and keep quality attorneys.
Smith said that when he was asked by an architect how the new workspace should look, he didn't want the mahogany-studded offices of a typical law firm.
"Our firm is different from any law firm in town," he said, adding he wanted the office's clients to feel at home and comfortable.
The finished product includes red metal walls, terrazzo floors, and 11-foot-high ceilings among other down-to-earth features in the renovated building that the public defender's office has occupied for about a month.
There's also a pair of conference rooms as well as space for high-tech, audio-video conferencing in the structure designed by River Street Architecture.
Matt McGauley, Fidelity Trust Co.'s president, said the two-story structure was built by his great-grandfather, John Crabtree, in 1920.
McGauley said he decided to move the real estate company's offices to the nearby McConnell Block Building on Seventh Street because he didn't need all of the 10,000 square feet.
At the same time, Smith had seen what McGauley's company had done to renovate another building off Cherry Street into law offices and he decided to shift the Public Defender's Office from its former location in the Tivoli Center on Broad Street.
Smith, 44, and McGauley agreed on a 10-year lease for the Cherry Street building, which is paid through state funds.
Smith said his aim was to figure out what he could do to make the office environment more attractive for the staff to do their work. Another plus is that the site is closer to the Hamilton County Courthouse, he said.
Smith added that there's only a couple of parking slots that come with the building, but the staff receives a stipend to pay for spaces in other downtown locations.
The refurbished building joins a variety of new and renovated structures in the central business district. Those include the new Market City Center apartment and office tower in the 700 block of Market Street and the former Cooper's Office Supply buildings on Cherry.
Fidelity Trust also made over the former Krystal Co. headquarters building at Seventh and Cherry streets. That three-story, 20,000-square-foot structure was remade into office and retail space in a $2.7 million project.
McGauley quipped that the hardest part of leaving the longtime home of Fidelity Trust was convincing his father, longtime company executive Mike McGauley, to exit his office after 46 years.
Contact Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6318.