Peter Chang signs a 10-year lease for restaurant in Scott’s Addition.

Peter Chang has signed a 10-year lease for a project in Scott’s Addition, its first restaurant in the city of Richmond.

Local real estate developers Carter and Annie Snipes announced the news Wednesday at the monthly meeting of SABA, the Scott’s Addition Boulevard Association. “We are extremely excited to be working with Peter, and believe he will be a major draw for the Scott's Addition area,” said Carter Snipes.

Known for its regional Szechuan Chinese cuisine, Chang’s will open a 3,000-square-foot Richmond restaurant this winter as part of a $1.4 million rehab of the 1928 Hofheimer Building, using historic tax credits. Architect Todd Dykshorn is designing the project, and First Capital Bank is financing it.

“I was drawn to the Hofheimer Building for its central location,” Chang said in a statement. “I can truly serve all of my downtown customers from this location. I’m excited by what Carter and Annie are trying to do there.”

Represented by broker Nancy Wan, Chang selected the site after touring many other locations around the city. While the restaurant will occupy half of the building’s first floor, Snipes Properties, the couple's 10-year-old real estate firm, has plans for the rest of the building. The building’s crown jewel will be a 4,000-square-foot rooftop deck — serviced by a two-ton freight elevator — offering panoramic views of the surrounding area as well as The Diamond’s summer fireworks displays.

Snipes says the space would make an amazing rooftop bar or dining patio. “Peter has expressed interest in expanding to the roof or sharing the building with a craft beer or wine-centric concept that would complement what he is doing,” Snipes said.

The developers still need to get approval from City Council to allow the rooftop space, and they plan to file the request later this summer after construction on the restaurant space is underway.

The development team held a series of community open houses attended by 400 neighbors and residents who toured the building. “The overwhelming response from the public was for it to be some kind of restaurant or event space and not apartments. People loved the rooftop potential. So we are going to work with the city to make that vision a reality,” said Annie Snipes.