Drury Hotels can proceed with planning a hotel in downtown Chattanooga at Third and Market streets after the company revised its design to conform to code, city officials said.
Chattanooga’s historical preservation group still worries the Missouri-based hotel chain plans to build a suburban hotel along a historic downtown street with little regard for the site’s legacy.
Drury entered the market last year with a hotel off Shallowford Road near Hamilton Place mall. It wants to build an eight-story, 196-room Drury Plaza Hotel at 301 Market St., where the Sportsbarn fitness club operated for decades before closing in 2023.
(READ MORE: Drury Hotel asked to respect downtown Chattanooga’s history)
“We’ve had zero communication from Drury Development or Drury Hotels,” said Todd Morgan, executive director of Preserve Chattanooga, in a phone interview on Wednesday. “This is the first time I’ve ever reached out to a company like Drury and have received zero response. It’s very disrespectful, I think, to our community to have them come in and do a project, but not be willing to discuss with us how they are impacting the community.”