NATCHEZ — A local couple is restoring a long-empty downtown warehouse with an eye to getting it back into active use in the long-term.

Mike Blattner, who along with his wife Sharon owns the historic home Cherokee, bought this year the 50,000 square-foot warehouse that neighbors their property on High Street.

“The short version is we live at Cherokee and it has bothered me that the warehouse was behind the house and I had a concern that somebody was going to buy and develop the building in a way that was detrimental to the house,” Blattner said.

“We bought it primarily to control what might happen there, but the building has been neglected for so long it was an eyesore, and we are going to bring the building back to a respectable cosmetic appearance.”

The building takes up a significant portion of the block ringed by North Canal, High, Wall and Monroe streets, and abuts Cherokee within the block.

The property the warehouse sits on was originally attached to Cherokee, and Blattner said he had considered tearing the warehouse down and incorporating the property back into Cherokee’s yard.

“We wanted to see that property rejoined back to the house, but when we got to it, it is way too much building and the buildings weren’t in bad shape once they are cosmetically addressed,” he said.

One of the buildings noteworthy external features is a mural on the Canal Street side advertising Alcafe Coffee and Double Eagle Coffee for the Interstate Coffee Company.

Workers are currently cleaning and painting the building, and Blattner said they are attempting to save the mural.

“We are going to try to clean that up, touch it up and maintain it,” he said.

“I think it is a nice piece of Natchez history. We have pulled permits for that and the city is aware we would like to restore that mural if we can and have that be a decorative element on the side of the building.”

Blattner said he doesn’t know what will be the ultimate end use of the building, but the interior of the building is not in bad shape despite needing some rehabbing, including to the roof.

Once that is done, Blattner said he hopes to find lease customers for some of the building’s space.

“We are putting in a drive-through door on the Wall Street side of the building, and we have a number of people who would like to park and store automobiles in there,” he said. “For the Canal Street side, we will find people who are interested in renting warehouse space in town, and — with companies looking at making movies in Natchez — there is a chance down the road that it may be fit for somebody’s production companies to use it.

“When we are done with it, it will at least look respectable and put it back into some kind of commerce.”