A.J. Antuna stands in front of a brick wall between two sets of nails that mark the width of what will be the entrance to his third Amigo Restaurant. Located around the building in Rossville there is nothing but an old wool processing plant, a church and McFarland Avenue.
"There's nothing here that says this is the place to put our restaurant, but it is," said Antuna, who plans to open the full-service Mexican eatery around Labor Day. "Every time I came out here I saw that the cars never stop coming past the site. I'm going to give them a reason to stop."
Antuna's new location is part of the Peerless Woolen Mill site that developers Bobby Wilson and Arthell Gray hope will be the foundation of a revitalization effort in Rossville, a town of 4,000 that connects with the Tennessee state line less than a half-mile from McFarland Avenue.
Wilson intends to develop the 42-acre site, which contains 1.3 million square feet of space under one roof. Traffic counts from the Georgia Department of Transportation show anywhere from 8,000 to 10,000 cars a day travel on McFarland Avenue, which connects Highway 2 to Rossville Boulevard and downtown Chattanooga.
"I believe in the future of Rossville," said Wilson, a Rossville native and graduate of Rossville High School. "A.J. believes in what we are doing, and opening the restaurant here where there are no restaurants is going to be huge for us."
Antuna, who said he is investing $200,000 in remodeling the building, said the new Amigo will reside in 7,200 square feet and be able to seat 250 customers. He will retain the 24-foot ceilings and exposed beams. Eight large windows will be cut into the front of the building next to the main entrance, and there will be ample parking exits. The restaurant will feature a small bar with seating for 15.
The new business will employ 20 full-time employees and 10 or more part-time employees.
"We will feature traditional Mexican plates, Tex-Mex plates and a few new 'California platters' like black beans and cactus," said Antuna, who owns Amigo in Red Bank and at the Island Cove Marina on Harrison Bay. "It will be a family-friendly place that is very involved with the schools just down the road."
He moved to Chattanooga in 1993 from Orange County, California, in order to work with his uncle in establishing the family restaurant chain.
"I told my mom I was not going to waste her money going to college but was just going to go out and make a living," said Antuna, now 47. "I started working in construction working with concrete, and went from that straight to the restaurant business and have stuck with it for 26 years."
He believes the restaurant will draw people to Rossville, which has a median income of $32,471, about half the national average and 28% below Chattanooga's median income, according to datausa.com. Rossville's poverty rate - 34.3% - is double that of those two areas.
The city is currently in the final phases of developing a master redevelopment plan with Georgia Tech's Center for Economic Development and Research.
"As downtown Chattanooga gets more and more built out, places on the outskirts, like Rossville, are going to start being developed," Antuna said. "I heard the vision for this place (the Peerless site), which I think is going to be totally awesome for the whole area. When the development starts having more and more employees working here, we will be here to feed them. People will have a place to stop instead of driving downtown or to East Ridge."
Email Davis Lundy at davislundy@aol.com