Mayor Bill Haslam and John Craig of 500 Block, LLC announced four tenants for the former S&W Cafeteria and WROL buildings, that will occupy the majority of the space in the project on the 500 Block of Gay Street.

The S&W Grand Café, operated by the team behind the popular Northshore Brasserie restaurant in West Knoxville, will occupy three levels of the building that formerly housed the S&W Cafeteria. Owners Stephanie Balest, Brian Balest and Chef Shane Robertson expect to open the restaurant by September, 2009.

Coolato Gelato will occupy the ground floor of the WROL Building. The gelato shop will be run by Cherryl and Allen Meuret, who trained under Italian gelato experts in preparation for their new venture.

Two design firms will occupy the top floors of the WROL Building. Elizabeth Eason Architecture will move into the third floor of the turn of the century structure. Eason specializes in sustainable design and historic renovations. The firm will direct the build out of their space utilizing green building materials and practices.

The second floor will be the new home of the Knoxville office of Carol R. Johnson Associates, Inc., an award-winning landscape architectural design and environmental planning firm with offices in Boston, MA, Knoxville, TN, and Abu Dhabi, UAE.

With the signing of these leases, the project is now 60% leased. John Craig of 500 Block, LLC, the developers of the project said that several prospective tenants are in discussion regarding the remaining available retail and office space. 
 
"We have been very pleased with the response to this project. These buildings hold a lot of memories for people in this community and we are pleased to play a role in returning them to use," said Craig.