Street Corner Market opens in downtown Chattanooga

A customer shops at the Street Corner Market at the Clemons.
A customer shops at the Street Corner Market at the Clemons.
photo The salad bar at the Street Corner Market is shown.
photo The Street Corner Market is on the first floor of the Clemons Building in downtown Chattanooga.
photo A customer shops at the Street Corner Market at the Clemons.

It's not quite a full grocery store as some downtown boosters want, but a new neighborhood market featuring a variety of food, drinks and other items has opened on the first floor of the six-floor Clemons Building.

The new multi-purpose market, known as "Street Corner Market at the Clemons," is targeting both the residents of the new Clemons Building apartments and downtown workers along Chestnut Street by offering a variety of food, flowers, jewelry and other items. The 3,000-square-foot store across from the Mountain City Club on Chestnut Street opened this week and will be open Monday through Friday, from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m., Saturday, from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m., and Sunday, from 11:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m.

Elia Gouvista, operating manager for the Street Corner Market, said the store will both prepare and sell packaged food, coffee and other items.

"Our customers will be able to select pastries, chocolate and breads from the Bluff View Art District; Fleetwood and Mayfly Coffees; unique jewelry from Elea Blake; and, unusual florals from Grafe Floral Studio, and a curated collection of craft beers," Gouvista said. "The market has even secured some exclusive deals such as offering famous Bluff View pretzels all week long and serving Mayfly's cold pressed coffee on nitro."

A deli within the store will offer Boar's Head gourmet sandwiches for lunch, meats and cheeses to take home after work. The store also features the only self-service salad bar in the center of the city.

The market also will soon allow customers to 'build a basket' of items they want to pick up on the way home through an online portal, which should be available within the next two months, store owners said. In addition, the owners of the market said they will begin delivery in the fall to area businesses and residents.

"From lunch deliveries to deliveries of fresh flowers and custom-made baskets, we'll be able to meet the needs of busy professionals and residents in downtown," said Gouvista.

The Street Corner Market will also provide a unique shopping experience for residents of The Clemons, which was remodeled over the past year as part of a $7.5 million upgrade of the brick facility. The market will feature a biometric fingerprint lock to allow residents to enter an area of the market to make purchases after hours.

Vic Desai, principal at ViaNova Development and the developer of the 54-unit Clemons apartments, said the Street Corner Market joins the new Epic Optical optometry office and eyeglasses boutique on the ground floor of the historic Clemons Building. Another 2,000 square feet of retail space is still to be leased, Desai said.

The Clemons Building was refurbished and reopened earlier this year with loft style one, two, and three bedroom apartments above the first floor retail space.

The building at 730 Chestnut St. was originally built for Clemons Brothers Complete House Furnishers a century ago and was later used by Richard Fowler's Galleries and BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee for office space until the insurer built its new corporate office atop Cameron Hill nearly a decade ago.

Contact Dave Flessner at dflessner@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6340.

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