$400K Grant Awarded
$400,000 GRANT AWARDED TO RENOVATE PARIS LANDMARK
Shannon McFarlin
4:01 pm
By Shannon McFarlin News Director
Paris, Tenn.–A Henry County landmark will be receiving new life as it is transformed into a downtown Paris brewery, restaurant and event center.
The Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development announced today a $400,000 grant has been awarded to rehabilitate half of the former H.V. Somerville building.
Anne-Marie and Matt Tanner will be renovating the space into “Paris Station”, which will include a brewery, restaurant, large indoor lawn space, and an event center. The building is located at 304 W. Washington St. and the last business to operate there was the Paris Discount Grocery. The other half of the building is occupied by the Paris BPU water and wastewater operations.
Anne-Marie told RadioNWTN on Thursday the couple has bought the former Perrylodgic Co. and have hired its former co-owner Jonathan Lodge to sprearhead the new business. Perrylodgic, which was located on Hwy. 79N, closed its doors a couple months ago.
The Tanners have an appreciation of the history of the building and said they already have received information about it from the Henry County Archives. “It’s really quite a jewel”, Anne-Marie said. “The Archives really gave us great information. We’ve got information on the building dating back to 1826.”
Over the years, the building has housed the Somerville Mule & Horse Livery, which later became automobile dealerships such as Porter Chevrolet, as well as the Baxter Clark Furniture store.
Anne-Marie said their space amounts to 23,000 square feet. “It’s huge, but we’ll just be using the downstairs portion,” she said.
Their vision, she said, is to create a business and destination that will create jobs for the community. They also plan to move to Paris, as well. Anne-Marie said her family is from the Hazel area in Calloway County “and we really want to move back to that area. We’re in Nashville right now.”
The couple have no firm timeline but are aiming for summer or early fall for opening the business. “We started doing work in there in January and we’re working with an architect and designer who did the HopTown Brewery so he’ll bring a lot to the project,” she said.
Photo: Composite photo of businesses which have operated in the W. Washington St. space over the years. Photo by Shannon McFarlin.
Original Article here: https://www.radionwtn.com/2023/02/16/400000-grant-awarded-to-renovate-paris-landmark/
