Gloria McClendon lives less than a mile from the deteriorating buildings marking the former Foxwood Plaza Food Lion site.
It's been more than five years since the grocery closed, along with surrounding businesses that provided services and jobs.
But despite years of vacant buildings in Foxwood near Wilcox Tunnel, she stands among dozens of residents with renewed hope that development is coming.
"They're going to revitalize the neighborhood," said McClendon, president of the Foxwood Heights Neighborhood Association.
Foxwood residents hang their hopes on local businessman Stan McCright, who proposes buying Foxwood Plaza.
If McCright has his way, not only will economic development descend on Foxwood, but it will also reach the surrounding communities of Avondale and Eastdale. He plans to open a corporate campus, including a call center, and employ 150 local people.
"If we can attract, train and retain people from within that community, then it will create that economic engine that starts to look for grocery stores, shopping centers and other things that they need," he said.
McCright, who co-owns McCright and Associates with his wife, Betsy, hopes to purchase the plaza this summer. Betsy McCright is executive director of the Chattanooga Housing Authority.
Local leaders want the Foxwood Plaza purchase to combine with the proposed $6 million Avondale recreation center to push economic development from East Chattanooga to North Brainerd.
"We are very excited about it. We really are," said McClendon.
Jobs are needed. More than 37 percent of people in the surrounding Avondale community live below poverty, compared to 21 percent below poverty in Chattanooga, according to the website city-data.com.
Eastdale, also located near the plaza, includes 25 known drug houses and 312 abandoned properties, said City Councilwoman Demetrus Coonrod during a 2016 community meeting.
McCright has until Aug. 30 to decide if he will purchase the 8.36-acre site. The complex will need extensive renovation, he said.
"I have options on the property for Aug. 30, so on Aug. 30, it will be a go or a no-go kind of decision," he said.
Herman Walldorf Commercial Real Estate lists the sale price at $1.4 million.
The area has been neglected for a very long time. Homes and commercial buildings in the community are boarded-up and abandoned and potholes are scattered on the streets, said longtime resident Miranda Sims, assistant secretary of the neighborhood association.
"[The community] is very much in need of jobs and services," she said.
McCright met earlier this month with residents from all three communities spanning City Council Districts 5, 8 and 9 to tell them of plans for a call center and a subsidized day care for the employees who work there.
He also mentioned a fitness center and space for small businesses.
There will be a job training center, and he's asking other nonprofits and potential educational partners to move into the complex.
"The idea he presents is great," said Foxwood Heights Neighborhood Association vice president Isabella Lane.
And the name of the facility will change from Foxwood Plaza to Mary Walker Heights. The proposed facility takes its name from the late Mary Walker, a Chattanooga native and the last living slave in America, stated McCright in a document he distributed during his presentation. Walker (1848-1969) who learned to read and write at age 116, stressed the importance of learning at any age.
McCright seems to be genuine, said McClendon.
"I felt a good rapport from him," she said.
The renovation and purchase price make it a multimillion facility, said McCright.
He's asking for partnerships with Hamilton County and Chattanooga city governments to acquire the building.
City Councilman Russell Gilbert said McCright already has his support.
If he makes the Aug. 30 purchase, he plans to open the call center in February 2018.
"If we can create a for-profit and bring a nonprofit alongside to deliver programming while people have the ability to work, earn a living, possibly go to school and their children are taken care of, then we hope that creates opportunity for them to develop their own path to sustainability," said McCright.
Contact Yolanda Putman at yputman@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6431.