By HANA KIM
6 News Reporter
KNOXVILLE (WATE) - As one downtown Knoxville restaurant takes its exit, another business is getting ready to take out its scissors.
Douglas J Aveda Institute is getting ready to take over the S&W Grande Cafe which closed its doors on Gay Street after financial problems earlier this year.
The new business is promising beauty and perhaps more vitality to downtown.
"The whole guest experience side of it will be really high end," said President Scott Weaver.
An upscale cosmetology school is what Weaver is promising. The school will start its first round of classes in September and accept clients in January.
"The historic part of S&W building is where a lot of the services will take place," Weaver said.
Once S&W Grande Cafe auctions off its kitchen equipment on Thursday, the new institute will start transforming the building to its needs.
Douglas J Aveda Institute says it has the capacity to enroll 250 students. The company has already started the admissions process.
In addition to the students, Weaver says he will hire up to 50 employees. On a good day the school and its students hope to serve up to 300 clients.
"That's certainly going to have a tremendous amount of impact on area businesses," said Weaver because it means more traffic onto a street that's already booming with restaurants and retail.
Knoxville's Central Business Improvement District worked to attract the cosmetology school. The group says the students will certainly give the city more vitality.
