A mural on the side of the building says “I have a dream.” But the rundown and vacant two-story red-brick structure and a pair of adjoining buildings look like an urban nightmare instead.
Boarded-up storefronts, missing windows and walls buckling characterize the M.L. King Boulevard and Houston Street site just a block from the offices of Miller & Martin PLLC, one of Chattanooga’s biggest and most prestigious law firms.
However, officials say help is on the way to save and restore the buildings. As thousands of Riverbend revelers Monday night walked past the decrepit buildings during the annual Bessie Smith Strut, efforts are accelerating to bring back a six-block stretch of M.L. King Boulevard east of Lindsay Street and let it and the neighborhood share fully in downtown’s revival.
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“It’s one piece at a time.” — Jeff Pfitzer, a Benwood Foundation program officer, about redevelopment on M.L. King Boulevard
A $1 million initiative to turn the three structures into new commercial and residential space is in the works, aided by plans for the city to secure $50,000 in federal money.
Jim Williamson, a vice president for the nonprofit redevelopment group River City Co., said locally based Raines Group is looking to refurbish the structures and is ready to move forward.
“They’re fighting time and gravity,” he said about the buildings, which date to 1893.
Bill Raines, the Chattanooga company’s president, said his real estate firm owns the parcel along with a trust tied to the former property owner, deceased builder Joe Sliger. The structures held businesses as recently as a few years ago, but they fell into disrepair after Sliger’s death.
Raines said the job of repairing the trio of buildings is to start this summer.
“The first phase is to get it stabilized before we lose it,” he said, adding he eventually sees commercial space on the ground floor and apartments or offices above.
Raines said he envisions M.L. King undergoing “a metamorphosis into a really neat boulevard.”
The timing is right for M.L. King, Williamson said. He said Raines’ revamp project would go hand-in-hand with other work recently done and future moves expected to help breathe new life into the corridor.
A few M.L. King property owners in the area recently refurbished their buildings, bringing in new business and housing.
The Benwood Foundation is working with River City and property owners to spur building renovation and new signage in the area.
“It’s one piece at a time,” said Jeff Pfitzer, a Benwood program officer. “The program is ready to support the building owner. We want to save [the buildings] and put them back to productive use. We’d love to see workforce housing in that district.”
Nearby, the empty former James Mapp state office building will be put back into use by the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga as early as this summer, said Chuck Cantrell, a university associate vice chancellor.
Plans are to place both credit and professional development coursework into the building, he said. Also, there may be space for business people to come in and access university resources, Cantrell said.
With the university’s close proximity to M.L. King, UTC officials are upbeat about more development on the corridor, he said.
“We’re excited at the prospect of commercial, retail, restaurants and residential development,” Cantrell said.
Despite the university’s presence, the M.L. King area has been slow to redevelop over the years for a variety of reasons. Pfitzer said there has been a lot of focus on the riverfront, the North Shore and the Southside areas of downtown. He believes it’s M.L. King’s turn.
“It’s been an in-between place,” Pfitzer said.
But, he said, pressure to redevelop M.L. King, and the central business district, is coming to bear.
In addition, the city’s new downtown Innovation District includes part of M.L. King. The district is designed to be a place where leading-edge anchor institutions and companies cluster and connect with startups, business incubators and accelerators.
Williamson said that Raines’ structures could hold “the cool loft office space you can’t get in the Krystal Building.”
Raines said he has also seen designs for restaurant seating on M.L. King’s sidewalks, bike lanes, and even auto turn lanes.
“There are a lot of concepts being looked at,” he said.
Potentially one of the biggest influences in the area is the construction of the Douglas Heights residential tower just a block off M.L. King at 10th and Douglas streets. The initial 691 units could nearly double to 1,500 over time, according to its developer, Chris Curtis of Riverside Development.
Another block over on 11th Street, the Fleetwood Coffee building is undergoing at least a $3.5 million renovation to turn it into new housing. The top three stories will be used to house 15-25 loft-style apartments, ranging from one-bedroom, 450-square-foot units to two-bedroom, 1,100-square-foot units, officials have said.
Also on 11th Street, ArtsBuild, the private nonprofit arts advocate in Chattanooga, is getting a new home with the donation of a building owned by the parent company of the Times Free Press. ArtsBuild will leave its rented space on the North Shore’s Frazier Avenue and move to the Dover Building.
Many decades ago, M.L. King was a bustling place for musicians and clubs and known as “The Big Nine,” as it was then called Ninth Street.
Pfitzer said the latest redevelopment efforts are “just beginning to find traction and piggy-backing on the momentum” that much of the rest of downtown has seen.
Contact Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6318.