SAVANNAH, Ga. (WSAV) — Three businesses were closed after the city condemned the building. The reason why stems back years. We have learned that two of those restaurants have since re-opened.
Business owners in The Cotton Exchange were forced to temporarily close up shop Thursday when the city condemned the building.
We’re told it was determined to be unsafe. Now, a construction company has been hired to fix the problem.
“There was some structural damage on the third floor, and the city had to shut down the whole building until they could get some supports in to eliminate the old fire damage to make it structurally sound,” Charles Taylor of EBI Services Construction said.
Fire damage, which Taylor says happened years ago, was just discovered.
“On their demo, they found the damage, and how severe it was, and then they called an engineering company and the ball started rolling until they came in and shut it down,” Taylor said.
The Cotton Exchange Tavern, Two Cracked Eggs, and Squealing Hog Barbeque shut down Thursday.
The latter two restaurants reopened Friday under a temporary order from the city.
We asked if that means it was safe for the public now. Taylor says—yes.
“They’re going to put temporary supports in, and they have some new timbers being milled,” he said. “It’s gonna take a couple of weeks, but they’ll come in, jack the floor up, and put in the new beam.”
Though the exact timeline for construction is not laid out yet, Taylor says there shouldn’t be any long-term problems.
Taylor explained, “Everything’s going to ok once they get the temporary supports in.”