On a guided tour Tuesday morning, the developer of Rossville's historic Peerless Mill offered more insight into his plans for the 32-acre property.
The short-term plan will involve a brewery, followed by food trucks, a playground and a dog park on the east side, facing McFarland Avenue. While projects with quicker turnarounds will come soon after that, the full 10- to 20-year plan will include apartments, bars, restaurants, office space and a music venue, he said.
"It's the old eating an elephant adage," the Nashville resident said during the tour. "Take it down one bite at a time."
Tyler Cauble said he has developed properties in Nashville and Chattanooga's Newell Tower, but he said this is easily his biggest project ever, purchased for $5.6 million. Cauble made the mill's purchase public at a late-May news conference announcing a $500,000 federal grant to assess several properties in Northwest Georgia for cleanup.
Cauble said he has applied to qualify the Peerless property for the cleanup program, but added, "We're somewhat iffy about doing it, because we ended up not having nearly as much environmental concerns as we were expecting, which is always nice."
So far, crews have found asbestos, lead paint and 25 square feet of contaminated soil, he said.
Cauble said his team plans to rehabilitate each of the property's 30 buildings when a tenant is ready to move in. Several businesses are already on the property, including Amigos at Peerless Mill, a Mexican restaurant at the south side of the property, and Praters Inc., a company that builds custom floors for professional and college basketball arenas.
One of the first projects will be turning the mill's power plant into a brewery, Cauble said. It's a unique space with ceilings rising to 50 feet, he said, which includes a huge doorless boiler where the coal was fired.
The mill had its own coal-fired plant and generated its own electricity to make textiles, Cauble said. During its heyday, Peerless was one of the region's largest employers.
Near the mill's power plant, a spring-fed pond that was drawn upon to generate steam is still filled with water - and fish that gather to be fed when people approach. Cauble said developers plan to build a walkway out over the pond, allowing guests better access to feed the fish.
Behind the power plant is a rail line, where coal was delivered to fuel the facility.
"This will become like a beer garden for the brewery" Cauble said, pointing to the area near the rail line. The building still has the old electrical switchboard that Cauble said could be turned into beer taps.
"And then, on these (railroad) tracks, where they used to leave the coal cars so they could haul them in there, we're gonna refurbish this and bring it back similar to what Chattanooga Choo Choo did, where passenger rail cars are converted into hotel rooms," he said.
A road runs north to south through the property, and Cauble said that will be closed to traffic to allow more room for pedestrians.
"We're seeing this tree-lined, sidewalks, with European-style cafe seating outside," he said.
Another nearby building will likely have retail in the front, with a bowling alley or shooting range deeper into the building. Cauble said his company also plans to cut out parts of the building's roof in a few spots to create interior courtyards for natural light throughout the building.
At this point in the plan, Cauble said he'd like to connect with people interested in light industrial space, food truck entrepreneurs and anyone "who wants to activate the space."
The project has created a buzz on social media, with hundreds of comments expressing excitement for the mill's revitalization and several with pitches to collaborate on a range of uses for the space.
(READ MORE: Revitalization of Rossville area joins forces across state lines)
At the time of the announcement, local elected officials expressed support for the project, bringing life to a space that Cauble said has been mostly inactive since a fire in 1967. Michael Hicks, chairman of the Rossville Downtown Development Authority, applauds Cauble's project and its role in Rossville's development.
"With the current momentum in Rossville, the purchase of the mill serves as a reminder that the work that has been happening for the last five to six years is beginning to pay off," Hicks said in a text message. "The Peerless Mill revitalization is key to the successful revitalization of the city as a whole. I look forward to seeing the former mill site transform into a thriving mixed-use development, complete with residential units, boutique hotels, breweries, and more!"
RV, boat parking and self-storage will also be added soon because those projects can be completed quickly, with less infrastructure investment than housing or offices, Cauble said.
Another building will be used as film studios, but that same space may eventually become lofts or more office space. A tax credit program attracts movie and television shoots to Georgia, Cauble said, adding that Chattanooga musician Kane Brown recently filmed on the Peerless property for his upcoming album.
Two out of three of the mill's smokestacks may be scrapped, depending on how structurally sound they are, but the plan is to keep the biggest one, Cauble said. The developer will refinish the biggest tower and paint "Peerless" on the side, he said, "because you can see that from the whole valley."
So far, Cauble said he has been securing the buildings and taking down decades of overgrown weeds, which he said he often does himself.
"I like getting my hands dirty," he said.
Towards the end of the long-term plan, Cauble said there will be a music venue on the west side of the property, creative office space, restaurants and a grocery, with plans to include a hydroponic grow facility to supply the onsite restaurants and residents with fresh produce.
A self-sustaining location is his ultimate goal, Cauble said.
(READ MORE: Summer markets in Rossville, Georgia, designed to build area's momentum)
"On 32 acres, if you didn't want to leave this property, maybe you don't own a car, you could truly live-work-play here if you want," Cauble said with a wry smile. "Selfishly, I'm just going to design the city that I'd want to live in."
There's a lot to do, Cauble said, before he departed, saying that his next task that day was tackling more landscaping on the property.
Contact Andrew Wilkins at awilkins@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6659. Follow him on Twitter @tweetatwilkins.