The Warten House bed and breakfast is being renovated and should be open by August. Owner David Gregory would eventually like to add a fine-dining restaurant.

The Athens City Council will hold a public hearing later this month over the rezoning of the Warten House bed and breakfast for the purposes of adding a restaurant.

The hearing, set for June 25 during the council’s regularly scheduled meeting, will be to hear comments for and against rezoning the property, located at 121 N. Jefferson St. The owner, David Gregory, is seeking to have the property rezoned from a historical neighborhood district to a downtown district.

Under the current zoning, a restaurant would not be permitted. At the May meeting of the Athens Planning Commission, Gregory told commissioners he would like to eventually have a small restaurant on site, though he anticipated it could be another two years before it comes to fruition.

“I don’t want to spend a million (dollars) and find out I can’t put in a restaurant,” he told the commission. “We would take one of the home’s two parlors and make a dinner-only fine dining restaurant. There’s nothing like this around.”

There are few fine dining options in the Athens area, though Terranova’s, a Huntsville-based Italian restaurant, plans to open in the former LuVici’s location next to U.G. White.

Gregory told the commission the bed and breakfast is being completed in phases. Once the first phase is done, it will have eight or nine guest rooms. Phase two would add additional guest rooms in the attic of the home, while the third phase would include the restaurant.

Renovations are still underway, with restroom area being added to upstairs bedrooms. Gregory has also allowed different groups to use the parlor rooms for events. He hopes rooms will be ready to rent by August.

One of the holdups has been improving sewage capacity to the facility. Gregory said the additional bathrooms required upgraded sewage lines, which the city has been assisting with.

He was also required to add a new fire-suppression system, which required loan assistance from the U.S. Small Business Administration. He hopes both of those projects can be wrapped up within the next 30 days.

Gregory keeps being asked the “million dollar question” of when rooms will be ready to rent. The calls aren’t just local, either.

“I’ve had calls from Wisconsin and New Hampshire,” he said. “It’s been a pleasure to do this. … It’s going to be phenomenal.”

Most Athens citizens remember the historic property as the former home of Jimmy and Kitty Greenhaw. Gregory, who purchased the Greenhaw home last spring, grew up in a home a short distance away on Marion Street.

Gregory previously told The News Courier he wanted to create a B&B in Athens because he likes them.

“This is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time,” Gregory said. “I spent my honeymoon in one in ’86 in Dahlonega, Georgia. Wherever I go I like to stay in them.”

For more on the Warten House, visit facebook.com/wartenhouse.