Then first floor of the St. George Hotel has been painted for a colorful decorative view of the old building facing Market Street in the 1400 block. The owner of the old St. George Hotel site across from the Chattanooga Choo Choo has sued a well-known local businessman in a dispute over the property.
St. George Holdings, a company controlled by Marta Alder, who bought the building in 2013 and has plans for a new hotel, has sued James D. Hutcherson. He had loaned her $700,000 in 2017 to get the project started, Hamilton County Circuit Court papers show.
Alder said in the suit she tried to repay Hutcherson, managing partner at the city’s biggest locally owned accounting firm, Henderson Hutcherson & McCullough, but he won’t accept the money and rather wants to take ownership of the 1445 Market St. location.
Fast fact
The St. George Hotel opened in 1924 on Market Street and operated to about 1980.
“I feel I’ve been wronged,” she said. “It has been my dream. I’m about there.”