T.U. Parks Construction supervisor Mike Conner, right, looks down from the fifth floor where a new stairway will be constructed inside the former Fleetwood Coffee building at the corner of King and East 11th streets.First they gutted it. Now they’re putting it back together.
The renovation of the long-vacant Fleetwood Coffee building in downtown Chattanooga is about halfway through, said Gerald McCormick, a principal with McCormick and Co. Real Estate, who’s leasing the office space and apartments under construction there.
Work began in January, when a demolition crew started to gut the five-story, brick-and-wood building at 11th and King streets. Workers removed the hardwood floors on every level, which had rotted because the roof leaked for years, as well as old coffee-roasting equipment.
When the demolition crew finished, all that was left inside the brick building were wood columns and beams.
“It looked like toothpicks. Very heavy toothpicks,” said construction Superintendent Mike Conner of Chattanooga-based T.U. Parks Construction Co.