GREENEVILLE, Tenn. (WJHL) – Depot Street construction in downtown Greeneville is nearing completion. The Town of Greeneville is working to bring life to downtown again by filling the vacant buildings on West Depot Street.

Three new businesses have already moved in; two of those are the Blue Mountain Studio and Nickle Ridge Winery.

“Now that we’re closer to the finish line, we are starting to recruit those businesses to come in and fill these spaces that have been vacant for several years,” said Jeff Taylor CEO and President of the Greene County Partnership. “Now that the infrastructure is complete, we can handle that kind of capacity.”

Blue Mountain Studios is a photography business locally owned by Jenifer Johnson. Johnson is new to downtown but told News Channel 11 she is excited to welcome other new businesses to Depot Street.

“For my business and neighboring businesses, we would love the traffic,” said Johnson. “You see places like Jonesborough and Johnson City, we frequent those other places as well. You want to see a bustling downtown, you want to see a busy downtown with full buildings of retailers and different services and, of course, that’s what we want.”

Johnson added that when the revitalization of Depot Street is complete, it will bring more clients to her business and others downtown.

“It has been a little hard to get people just because we don’t have that much traffic, but we have a lot of hopes here for West Depot to bring people in and to make it the downtown that everybody wants it to be,” said Johnson.

Jeff Taylor said the Partnership and the town have big plans for Depot Street and one is adding a brewery for people to enjoy.

“We are looking for that diversity in the retail and eating so that it is a family-friendly environment,” Taylor said. “It’s got some nightlife at the same time and a little bit of something for everybody.”

There are still plenty of vacant buildings on West Depot, and the Partnership is launching a website to promote these spaces and bring more entrepreneurs to Greeneville. Taylor said that they hope to have all of Depot Street complete by the end of 2023.

Johnson is having an official ribbon cutting for Blue Mountain Studio with the Greene County Partnership on September 15 at 4 p.m. to celebrate her move to downtown.