As lots of Clarksville business enterprise and neighborhood leaders have promised for months, major issues are coming to downtown Clarksville.
One more boost to that upward momentum for the most historic, nevertheless struggling aspect of the city is discovered this 7 days.
Investors verified Tuesday programs for a $4 million, a few-story, privately-owned cafe and bar facility that the entrepreneurs say is partly spawned by Montgomery County’s new multipurpose events center.
At the corner of Second and College streets, and throughout College from the big hole where the new MPEC, or arena, is to be crafted, another few who feel in the foreseeable future of downtown — Joe and Cathi Maynard — are getting ready to add their individual 18,700-square-foot framework which is to be named, “Shelby’s Trio.”
That “trio” is to be damaged down as follows:
• The to start with ground will be an American-themed eatery that highlights largely 1970s muscle mass cars on screen.
• The second ground will aspect wonderful Italian cuisine well prepared by a educated chef.
• The 3rd floor will have an indoor-outside, upscale rooftop bar.
Joe Maynard suggests he hopes to have his metropolis making allow by late-February for a new downtown spot that could open up to shoppers by December.
The Maynards have currently grow to be major community supporters in other techniques, such as their nicely-acknowledged contributions to Austin Peay Point out College.
Now, they want to sign up for local federal government and other personal buyers in supporting to guide downtown Clarksville back to prominence, they reported.
“Previous calendar year, we resolved to invest extra in the group and significantly less in the inventory sector,” Joe Maynard instructed The Leaf-Chronicle Tuesday afternoon, “and we definitely want to help the downtown neighborhood.
“The restaurant has been my wife’s dream all over our 38 many years of marriage,” he explained.
Sitting on almost an acre at the best of the hill on College Street, the a few-tiered Shelby’s Trio will owe its company title both equally to the Maynards’ grandson, and to the Shelby GT 500 basic cars that will be element of his display on the very first ground.
That flooring, he’ll phone “Joe’s Garage Clarksville,” which will have the American-design eatery of custom made burgers, scorching pet dogs, barbecue and brats, amid a showcase of GT, Chevelle, Cuda and other 500-plus-horsepower automotive classics owned by the Maynards and other neighborhood contributors.
“On times where by there is very good weather, we’ll even have cruise-ins,” Cathi Maynard explained.
Acquire one particular of two elevators to the next floor, and the mood changes. There, good Italian cuisine is prepared, to be well prepared by a qualified chef.
They are going to get in touch with this cafe, “Gatte Cucina.”
“This level will function a restaurant that is a minor nicer, where by you would want to dress a tiny nicer. It truly is a very little extra exceptional, with a small fewer seating than on the initially ground,” Joe Maynard explained.
On to the 3rd, or best ground, you’ll land in “Skyline 500 Bar,” which, as the identify indicates, will offer patrons a 360-diploma watch of downtown, APSU, the arena and the Cumberland River — and the “500” aspect of the identify goes back to Joe Maynard’s love of the GT muscle automobiles.
It will be an upscale bar also serving a mild menu. It will be fifty percent-indoors, half-outdoor with partial deal with and heating in colder weather, and lounge-design and style furniture.
The Maynards strategy to open up the 1st-floor cafe all over 10 a.m. everyday, when the 2nd and 3rd floors will open everyday all over 4:30 p.m. and shut by 11 p.m.
The large amount itself is expected to offer you room for parking up to 60 automobiles, and the ton and constructing will be wheelchair-available.
Lyle-Cook dinner-Martin Architects of Clarksville is managing the constructing design and style. “It’s a massive facility — more substantial than what I experienced initially planned. We consider what we are bringing to downtown is likely to be a substantial attract. We will be incorporating about 250 cafe seats to the downtown space and we are going to be equipped to conveniently manage crowds of up to 500 people at a time,” Joe Maynard claimed.
With the enterprise, he truly is not going to have to stop his day position as bulk owner of Echo Electrical power Engineering. He’ll use his engineering knowledge, in reality, to equip the full constructing with a backup generator to aid its energy supply.
“This is meant to be a legacy spot in Clarksville for our family,” Joe Maynard said. The couple have two sons and a daughter-in-legislation in the space, furthermore 3 grandchildren.
“We have purchased into Clarksville pretty critically in the earlier calendar year,” he explained. “Observing the MPEC come about served with inspiring the restaurant aspect of it. And when you search at the master program for redevelopment of Next and Faculty streets, you see anything that is going to be a spot position not just for Clarksville, but people today all through a broader location.”
Also spurred by the MPEC, the pair pointed out, are plans from the regional Hand household to do a makeover of the Riverview Inn as a Hilton lodge, and deliver additional retail lease spaces involving the MPEC and that hotel.
“We’re worn out of observing neighborhood men and women go to Nashville all the time for eating and leisure, when they could keep right here,” Joe Maynard stated.
And the intention of owning additional cafe choices for downtown is not to compete with what is currently there, Cathi Maynard explained, but alternatively, greatly enhance it all.
“We’re not competing with the other important cafe homeowners in Clarksville. Our menu things, for the most portion, will not likely be the exact same as theirs,” she reported. “Our intention is to do a little something to persuade
men and women to support all corporations in the place.”
With a lot more building now all-but confirmed next-doorway to the MPEC, seem for a chaotic and bustling spring and summer months in downtown Clarksville — highlighted by the seems of large machinery.
Reach Jimmy Settle at jimmysettle@theleafchronicle.com or 931-245-0247. To assistance his get the job done, sign up for a electronic membership to TheLeafChronicle.com.