Café Santa Rosa is renovating an abandoned three-story building at Knoxville and Archer. It's part of an effort to grow its Junction City-based sustainable coffee business.
The main floor of the new space will be used for coffee roasting that is currently done at another site. The upper floors will be rented out as residential apartments.
Owner Heber Vidal said the goal is to make the building appear as close to it's original 1920s state as possible. He believes the building was once a cabaret, possibly with a hidden speakeasy.
"We know that there was a lot of activity there," Vidal said. "I am doing it just because I thought it was terrible to waste that beautiful building."
With the building expansion, Vidal said the business will need more coffee roasters and employees to join the Café Santa Rosa team.
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