Stephanie Hays, manager at The Tomorrow Building, talks about occupant space on the second floor in the former historic hotel at the corner of Georgia Avenue and Patten Parkway.Stephanie Hays is the person to talk to if you want to live in the Tomorrow Building, a four-story, 19th century, former hotel in downtown Chattanooga that's being remodeled into "micro apartments" that average 352 square feet in size.
Those apartments may sound small. But Hays, marketing and managing the Tomorrow Building for Lamp Post Properties, used to work in a place with much tighter living quarters: Dharavi, a neighborhood in the heart of Mumbai, India, that's been called the world's largest slum.
"A million people in a square mile creates a lot of interesting things," Hays says.
She was CEO of Reality Tours and Travel, which leads tours through Dharavi and uses the proceeds to fund Reality Gives, a nonprofit organization that helps the slum's residents.
Dharavi isn't dangerous, Hays said. People from around the world visit to study its entrepreneurial activity, the architecture of its makeshift homes and the thriving recycling industry that's sprung up there. And the food is good, too, she said.
"I developed a street food tour when I was there," said Hays, who'd take tourists to taste iconic Indian street snacks such as pani puri, spherical crisps filled with flavored water, and jalebi, a popular sweet similar to a syrupy doughnut.
Mumbai is Hays' favorite city. She said the people there are some of the friendliest she's ever met.
Hays has lived around the world: New York City and Amsterdam during college; Shanghai right after college, where she taught English; and London, where she worked as marketing executive for G Adventures, a small-group adventure travel company while her husband, Peter Woolcock, helped prepare for the 2012 Summer Olympics.
Stephanie Hays
• Age: 30• Relationship: Married to Peter Woolcock• Job: Marketing and Tomorrow Building Manager, Lamp Post Properties• Career background: Tourism
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For information about the Tomorrow Building see www.tomorrowbuilding.com
The couple dated for six years before they married in a civil ceremony in Edinburgh, Scotland.
"Pete and I love to travel, and we absolutely adore train travel in particular," Hays says. Some of their longer trips include taking the Trans-Siberian Railway across Russia and making a 33-hour trip from Mumbai to Amritsar, a city in Punjab, India, that's home to the Golden Temple, the Sikh religion's most sacred place.
Hays grew up on Signal Mountain and attended the Girls Preparatory School. She moved back to Chattanooga in 2015 after leaving in 2004. Now the couple live on the Southside near Stephanie's parents, Ken and Ellen Hays.
As a labor of love, Hays launched a free (though tips are appreciated) two-hour walking tour that "delves into Chattanooga's past, present and so much more." Its website is freewalkcha.com.
Hays got a job last year as project director for Startup Week Chattanooga, a multiday "celebration of Chattanooga's entrepreneurial community." That's where she met Tiffanie Robinson, the president of Lamp Post Properties, which is developing the Tomorrow Building and breathing new life into other old buildings downtown.
The Tomorrow Building will include common areas, including a community kitchen and an "innovation room."
"Stephanie is very dedicated to building communities," Robinson said. "She believes that Chattanooga has so much to brag about. That's how I knew she was a perfect fit for our team."
"We're really focused on building up the Innovation District," Robinson said, "and Stephanie has the heart and energy to really tell the Chattanooga story and help people understand why they should be thinking about relocating here."
Contact staff writer Tim Omarzu at tomarzu@timesfreepress.com or www.facebook.com/MeetsForBusiness or twitter.com/meetforbusiness or 423-757-6651.