The owner of the old location of Franklin Junior High School wants to bring new life to the building.
But in order for his plans to move forward, he’ll need votes from the community.
Neighbors in the area say the building holds a lot of history, from being a school and then a church.
Now it’s barely used–neighbors say that has brought some unwanted people around the area.
“My husband and I moved to the neighborhood a couple years ago and at the time the church owned the building and we thought what better neighborhood than the church.”
But when the church sold, it became vacant.
“We had people drag racing in the parking lot and doing doughnuts.”
“Guns were pulled fro both side and my husband was like ‘get back over here what are you doing’ and we had to call the police at that point to catch those people who had guns pulled 100 feet from my front house.”
Betsy says things got better when the building was bought by Jeff Young. It started with him blocking off the crime hospot–the parking lot. Now he has plans to renovate the whole building.
“We see doing the preformance side of things and office and brewery and hotel and restaraunt,” Young told Local 5’s Erica Rankin.
He has traveled around the U.S. to see how others have done similar projects.
“The way they have re-purposed them is mainly as hotels, restaurants, and a boutique bar.”
If the city doesn’t approve the project or re-zoning, it could even mean losing people like Betsy in the neighborhood.
“If it doesn’t pan out would you move away? We have to start looking.”
Jeff says he isn’t asking the city for any money on the project, and he plans to fund it all.
To move forward, the request for re-zoning will have to be approved. That vote will take place Thursday.
Then it will go to a city council vote to approve the plans.