A decade after the Chattanooga Bank Building was emptied amid a failed renovation, another developer stepped in Wednesday with a plan to create what he termed “a historic landmark.”
About 100 people stood outside the nearly century-old, downtown tower as a Milwaukee company pledged to open a 148-room Tapestry Collection by Hilton hotel called The Waymark.
“We’ll have a gem here,” Joe Klein, principal at HKS Holdings, told the group at the 736 Broad St. building that originally was designed by acclaimed architect R.H. Hunt.
The event officially marked work at what’s been estimated as a $59 million project to refurbish the long-vacant, 10-story structure sitting in the heart of the central city.
Klein said the hotel is to open in about 17 months. The finished product will offer a rooftop bar, a speakeasy in the old basement bank vault, valet parking and 2,000 square feet of meeting space, officials said.