Downtown shopping, restaurant complex set for Market Street
Steve Heatherly looks over the front of the old Hammers buillding at Market Street, where he is creating the Market Street Market dining and shopping complex. (photo:G. Chambers Williams III )
Developer Steve Heatherly said he is managing partner of “a small group of lifelong Clintonians dedicated to improving our town,” with emphasis on Market Street.
The group, known as MSP Property Redevelopment, plans to update the former Hammers Dry Goods store location at 381 Market St. to become a “destination” for shoppers and diners.
It’s the former site of Clinton’s Park Hotel, which was demolished in 1971. The current building was constructed in 1972. Hammers has long since moved to Charles G. Seivers Boulevard.
“I think it’s an exciting idea,” Clinton City Manager Roger Houck said Monday. “We’re seeing a lot of new businesses on Main and Market streets. That goes hand-in-hand with our plans for downtown.”
Signs on the front and back of the old Hammers building promote the new Market Street Market and list Heatherly’s phone number to call for information.
“Our vision is that it will become an 11,000-square-foot destination on Market,” Heatherly said. “There will be multiple eateries, with indoor and outdoor eating spaces; 15 pop-up retail spaces; a fast-grab food area and food court; and a kids’ play area.
“It will be in an open-market format,” he said. “We strongly believe it will complement our other businesses on Market Street.”
The group has no specific plans in place yet, and Heatherly would not say when the new development might open.
“It would be premature to comment on the timeline right now,” he said. “We’re in negotiations with anchor tenants and restaurateurs. There will be announcements forthcoming, and we expect to have a couple of restaurant options.
“This is our third building on Market to renovate,” Heatherly said. “We recently did the old Clinton Drug building, adding Bloom Water & Co. and Making Merry, and soon the Velvet Pug, with fine European antiques. We updated the alleyway where The Garden is. We’re really excited about the opportunities downtown.”
The Market Street Market’s main entrance will be on Commerce Street, he said, as the building runs along the side of Cullom Street all the way from Market to Commerce. The area along Cullom would be turned into outside dining space.
There are three levels to the building, Weatherly said. There is the front, which is level with Market Street; a lower garage area in the rear that is at Commerce Street level; and a basement area accessed off Commerce Street by a descending stairway.
The pop-up shops will be in the basement area, he said.
While there are a few on-street parking spaces on Market Street, the main parking area for the new development will be the city’s Commerce Street parking lot, Heatherly said.
“We’re blessed with parking downtown,” he said. Our entrance will be off Commerce Street where all the parking is. We have a lot of stuff going for us downtown, and one is the abundance of parking.”
Heatherly, who previously worked as an officer in a construction company, operates a horse farm in Clinton, Miller Hollow Farm.
He is a 1977 graduate of Clinton High School, and he’s also a member of the executive board of the Anderson County Chamber of Commerce.
“Our city is transforming right before our eyes,” he said. “We’ve been officially designated as a Tennessee Main Street city; we’ve got multiple infrastructure projects, such as roads and bridges, going; and there are new shops popping up everywhere. We have Aspire Park coming.
“We’re blessed with an abundance of employment opportunities,” he said.
“Sales are up, taxes are low. The interest in our town is just unbelievable right now. We like to say, ‘It’s about time.’”