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Two downtown blocks are drawing crowds to Chattanooga’s ‘West Village’

Staff photo by Doug Strickland / The former headquarters of Gilman Paint Co. is undergoing redevelopment in the West Village across Pine Street from the Westin hotel.
Staff photo by Doug Strickland / The former headquarters of Gilman Paint Co. is undergoing redevelopment in the West Village across Pine Street from the Westin hotel. Staff photo by Doug Strickland / The former headquarters of Gilman Paint Co. is undergoing redevelopment in the West Village across Pine Street from the Westin hotel.

By Mike Pare 5 min read

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“There’s a lot of good energy to come in the next few months. It’s bringing a lot of new life in this section.” — Tom Underwood, the Westin’s general manager

For most of the past decade, the area of downtown Chattanooga around the former BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee headquarters was seen as a sleepy part of the central city.

In 2009, the Chattanooga-based health insurer and its employees moved out of the so-called Gold Building to a shiny new $299 million campus on Cameron Hill across U.S. Highway 27.

But the area around Pine and West Eighth streets all changed last year when a Westin hotel opened in the 10-story building along with new restaurants and bars inside and eateries and retail shops nearby. And even more development is planned in what has been dubbed “the West Village.”

Tom Underwood, the Westin’s general manager, says a tequila and taco bar, Citron et Sel, also is opening in the area, and a restaurant offering a steak concept, too, is under construction across Pine from the hotel.