A 97-year-old building on Chattanooga's North Shore has been torn down as its owner weighs ideas such as a hotel, housing or a restaurant on the tract that sits next to the Walnut Street Bridge.
The 202 Frazier Ave. site for decades held the Northside Lunch eatery, but the structure had been empty for years.
Owner Bob Cox, who bought the property in 2017 and later proposed a boutique hotel on the parcel, said the building was attracting animals and he wanted to clean up the lot.
"That was the whole purpose to get the building down and make it a little more attractive for neighbors and people who drive by as well," he said in a telephone interview. "It's going to be a lot cleaner and nicer and [the property] will have a lot more visibility."
Cox said the city sent him a letter late last year or early in 2022 asking him to rebuild the siding on the structure. According to Cox, the letter said if that wasn't acceptable, the city would have to demolish the building and send him the bill or put a lien on the property.
Cox said he was already considering taking down the building when he received the letter.
"The more I thought about it ... well, it's not a bad idea," he said.
Ellis Smith, director of special projects in Mayor Tim Kelly's office, said the city had received complaints about the property. But he said by phone that the owner was never cited for a demolition hearing.
Todd Morgan, executive director of the historic preservation group Preserve Chattanooga, said a decision on whether to save a building depends on the structure.
"We need to be thoughtful of what we're preserving," he said in a telephone interview. "We look at the architecture, history and different elements to determine its value."
Morgan said that what will take Northside Lunch's place on the lot is key because it will anchor that end of the Walnut Street Bridge.
"We encourage people to look at the neighborhood and get a feel for scale and the proportions of the building," he said, adding that whatever is constructed should make "a nice architectural statement."
Cox in 2017 won approval from a Chattanooga zoning panel for the four-story hotel. But construction on the proposed 21-room hotel never came about as the pandemic and other issues put a dent in the plan, he said.
A hotel is still a possibility, Cox said, but he needs to rework the financial numbers.
"Right now I'm still looking at a small inn, but I'd be quick to say before I make that a reality I rerun a study," he said. "The whole industry has really changed."
Cox said he has heard suggestions ranging from a restaurant to retail to condominiums and apartments. One merchant raised the idea of an outdoor market, Cox said.
"We don't know," he said. "I'm just listening."
Still, Cox said he likes the 5,000-square-foot lot's location between Frazier Avenue and Coolidge Park.
"We'll take a look at the options over the next year," said Cox, who operates Cox Hotels in Chattanooga, where he does consulting and troubleshooting for others in the industry.
The idea of the four-story hotel that earlier won approval wasn't well received by some people at the time.
Bob Drake, a resident in the area, said then that the taller building would destroy views of the North Shore. He also expected other building owners would want to add height to their structures.
"It will be copied all the way down the street," Drake said. "It's a very short-sighted decision. This is a very historic area."
The Northside Lunch location sits just north of another building adjacent to the bridge where a developer had earlier planned to put a hotel next to Coolidge Park.
However, after the hotel plan drew a storm of protests, developer Bill Young swapped that site with the city for another tract at Manufacturers Road and Cherokee Boulevard. Young later sold that lot, where Vision Hospitality Group built new apartments.
Contact Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6318. Follow him on Twitter @MikePareTFP.