Cupcake Kitchen wants to tear down and replace its bakery, but the downtown Chattanooga zoning panel has denied requests for exemptions needed to move forward.
The bakery has operated at 500 Broad St. since 2011 and has outgrown its space, owner Helene Grzybowski told members of the panel. The roughly 1,300-square-foot, one-story structure was built in 1910.
Along with her architect, Grzybowski requested modifications to downtown codes that would allow Cupcake Kitchen to build a one-story replacement rather than the minimum three stories required.
The bakery also wanted to reduce the minimum window coverage of the ground floor from 70% to 7% and the minimum building frontage along Fifth Street from 80% to 50%.
Cupcake Kitchen cooked up plans for new Broad Street building
The project would add around 700 square feet and a more charming brick building to the prominent corner, Grzybowski said at the meeting.
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Grzybowski, who bought the building and lot in 2021, doesn’t have enough money to build a new two- or three-story building, she said.
She told the panel she didn’t want to jeopardize her business trying to fund construction by renting out upper floors.
“I’m a local staple down here. I’m successful,” she told the panel. “I’m not a fly-by-night. I’ve proven myself.”
The nine-member panel Thursday unanimously denied all three requests, saying they did not meet standards laid out in downtown code.
Cupcake Kitchen and its architect can appeal the denial to the Chattanooga City Council.
If the plans had been approved, Cupcake Kitchen could have begun work on the new building as early as November, Grzybowski said on a phone call Friday.
“I believe that my architect wants to appeal it,” Grzybowski said. “I respect their decision. If I have to just do an addition, I’ll do an addition, and we’ll make the best of it.”
HIGH STANDARDS
New construction faces a high bar downtown, and members of the panel said Cupcake Kitchen’s request didn’t clear it, though the new structure would be similar to the existing one.
City Council members adopted a special downtown code in 2016, which governs the look of structures and not just their use.
“This just goes against almost every principle” of the code, David Hudson, an architect on the panel, said of the proposal.
The committee sent Drury Hotels back to the drawing board earlier this year for its hotel under construction at 301 Market St.
Projects can get exemptions if they meet a standard for hardship or face conditions keeping them from conforming to code.
While the panel acknowledged the hardships Cupcake Kitchen faced in its current space, members said a new structure was different.
“If we were agnostic in our thinking here, and this was a new building coming in, there’s not really a hardship,” said Alex Reyland, another architect on the panel.
The exemptions Cupcake Kitchen sought aren’t just for financial reasons.
Having too many windows in the bakery could threaten the conditions for cupcakes, Zachary Kelly, the project’s local architect, told the panel.
“Large amounts of fenestration in the storefront would possibly compromise the delicate temperature environment in the display cases,” Kelly said. “Heat plus icing equals an unsafe environment.”
The existing structure is in bad shape and could not support more weight or additions, Kelly said. Cupcake Kitchen originally planned for an addition, but found it would be easier to start from scratch.
The team behind the project will look at appealing the denial, Kelly said by phone on Friday.
Grzybowski has added a shipping container to the back of the bakery for storage and has dealt with aging equipment, she said.
“It’s hard for me to grow under the conditions that I’m in,” she told the zoning panel. “It’s scary to me, all of this. I’m in it alone. I want to do the right thing. I’m asking for your help.”
Cupcake Kitchen has a short-term lease at the MoonPie General Store space across the street, which closed in May. It planned to move operations there during construction on a new building, Grzybowski said.
Contact business reporter Daniel Dassow at ddassow@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6318.