CHICKASHA — Renovation of the Mill Building downtown continues, owner Chet Hitt told Southwest Ledger on May 23.
“We’ve removed the old carpet on the second floor, and we’re getting ready to repaint, replace light fixtures and work on the floor,” he said. The second floor of the Mill Building will be his business office in Chickasha, the California-based businessman said.
During a presentation to the City Council on Dec. 5, Hitt said his Town’s End Company would establish the TE Coffee House in the building, which had been vacant for years.
The coffeehouse will feature “our special blend of roasted coffees, along with its own private label of coffee beans” for public sale. Other retail items will include clothing, soaps and miscellaneous items bearing the Town’s End and TE Coffee House brand.
The Mill Building houses 3,802 square feet of space: 1,901 square feet on each of its two floors. The actual age of the building is unknown, but it is believed to have been constructed about 80 years ago and is “considered in fair to average condition,” according to appraiser Terry M. Peak of Elgin.
The masonry building formerly served as a warehouse/commercial office building, Peak wrote. The site also includes approximately 13,500 square feet of open-air parking space on the west side and 4,662 square feet of covered parking on the north, Peak said.
The entire “revitalization” project Hitt plans in Old Town Chickasha – in which he said he would invest as much as $5 million and patterned after his Town’s End development in Apple Valley, California – was contingent on acquisition of the Mill Building, he said.
Hitt also has purchased the nearby Savoy Hotel and is renovating it for a restaurant and deli. He also bought the nearby abandoned downtown grain elevator, which he intends to use as an advertising “billboard” displaying large “Welcome to Old Town Chickasha” neon signs.
His plans also include construction of a 10,000 square-foot Town’s End Stillhouse & Grill. The central feature will be a copper still that produces half a million to a million bottles of spirits per year, he said, and “will be the anchor of the Town’s End project.”
The distillery alone will cost $1 million, the 1982 Anadarko High School graduate said during his presentation to the City Council in December.
The renovated Rock Island Railroad depot, which was constructed in 1910, is “the staple of the Old Town,” Hitt said. He’s in negotiations to lease that building, to use for special events, weddings, classrooms, and community space.
Hitt, a self-described “dreamer,” has also suggested construction of a pedestrian bridge over the railroad tracks to connect the Grady County Fairgrounds – third largest in Oklahoma, surpassed in size by only Oklahoma City’s and Tulsa’s – with Old Town Chickasha.
He also has proposed construction of a hotel that would serve an influx of visitors and perhaps provide a venue for a culinary arts and hospitality training program developed by Chickasha’s University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma.