Empire Distributors Chattanooga.

Project brief

Empire Distributors of Tennessee – Chattanooga is the Chattanooga-area branch of Empire Distributors of Tennessee, a wholesale distributor of beer, wine and spirits. The facility is at 4300 Cherokee Gateway Blvd SW in McDonald, in Bradley County next to Cleveland, Tennessee. It is one of the company's four Tennessee branches, with between 25 and 99 employees working at the site.

The parent company was founded in Atlanta in 1940, is headquartered in Austell, Georgia, and has been owned by Berkshire Hathaway since 2010. It entered Tennessee by acquiring Horizon Wine & Spirits, later added B&T Distributing in Knoxville and Delta Wholesale Liquors in Memphis, and combined these businesses as Empire Distributors of Tennessee. The Chattanooga branch carries on the former Horizon operation. It now operates as a state-licensed wholesaler, and Empire has been counted among the companies opening facilities in the Cleveland and Bradley County area since 2020.

In 2022 BOGZA produced exterior renderings of the building for Merriman Schmitt Architects, with views from the entry drive and from the air. They show a large distribution building with a glazed office entry, truck docks running along one side and landscaped parking, set against a backdrop of forest.