Rachel Spring fixes a coffee drink at Chattz Coffee. Chattz is expanding by adding a location at The Block downtown on Broad Street.A Chattanooga coffee business is opening a second coffeeshop in downtown’s not-quite-finished climbing and retail attraction on Broad Street.
Chattanooga Coffee Company will add a second Chattz coffeeshop and retail store in The Block at 215 Broad Street, less than a mile from the company’s original Chattz on Market Street.
The second shop will expand the company’s reach into the heart of Chattanooga’s tourism district and could help boost the coffee-maker’s Internet sales, co-owner Evelyn Wheeler said. Downtown development nonprofit River City Company wooed Chattanooga Coffee into taking the space.
“When they approached us, right away said we couldn’t do it because we have a lot of irons in the fire,” she said. “But they were very persistent and in the end we felt we should consider it. And as we put our toes in the water, one thing fell in place, and then another fell in place and it became apparent that we should pursue it.”
The new store will be situated between High Point Climbing and Fitness and Rock Creek Outfitters in the $6.5 million development, which is slated to be one of the largest downtown climbing facilities in the United States. Wheeler hopes to open the shop by spring and could hire as many as 10 people, she said.