Antique mall on North Shore to close by end of August; new owner to renovate property

By Tim Omarzu July 29, 2016 5 min read

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Knitting Mill gets new owner and plansAntique mall on North Shore to close by end of August

The Knitting Mill, at 205 Manufacturer's Rd., is soon to be sold and repurposed. The 20,000-square-foot first floor of the old building presently offers anitques.

Staff Photo by Dan Henry / The Chattanooga Times Free Press- 7/27/16. David Woodbery, developer and owner of the future Signal Mill office and retail development, speaks about his recent acquisition of the building where Knitting Mill Antiques currently resides and what he plans to do to it on Wednesday, July 27, 2016.

Staff Photo by Dan Henry / The Chattanooga Times Free Press- 7/27/16. A vendor enters Knitting Mill Antiques which was recently purchased and will become the Signal Mill office and retail development complex.

Staff Photo by Dan Henry / The Chattanooga Times Free Press- 7/27/16. Vendors inside of Knitting Mill Antiques are discounting merchandise after the building was recently purchased and will become the Signal Mill office and retail development complex.

Staff Photo by Dan Henry / The Chattanooga Times Free Press- 7/27/16. Knitting Mill Antiques was recently purchased and will become the Signal Mill office and retail development complex.

Chattanooga’s booming North Shore is getting another multi-million-dollar shot in the arm but will say goodbye to a well-liked antiques mall.

Atlanta developer David Woodbery, of the Woodbery Group, paid $3.55 million for the Knitting Mill Antiques building at 205 Manufacturers Road. He plans to spend another $8 million upgrading the brick, 60,000-square-foot, two-and-a-half-story (counting the windowed basement) structure.

“It’s a 100-year-old, beautiful building,” Woodbery said. “We really want to bring out its character, its charm and its authenticity. People want that – and you can’t recreate it.”

The building’s first and second floors will be converted into a space for boutiques, specialty food shops, offices – and a second restaurant at the building’s opposite end from Food Works, which will remain.

“Yes, we are staying in the building,” Danny Hilson, general manager at Food Works, a restaurant that’s open daily and popular Sunday brunch destination that just celebrated its 10-year anniversary.