Major construction should start soon at the future Appalachian Grill in downtown Rome, where developers plan to renovate and widen a historic former furniture store at 113 Broad St.

Workers for Bennett Construction began digging footings Friday in preparation to pour a concrete slab where they will widen the building by 21 feet, almost doubling its size.

Weather permitting, the workers plan to pour the concrete before Thanksgiving, said G.H. Riddle, one of five investors in the project. The renovation is expected to be finished by June.

The building’s renovation has been delayed by design changes and changes in the investment group. The project originally called for office suites upstairs but instead has been redesigned to include eight “high-line, New York-style lofts,” Riddle said.

“There’s been a lot of work going on that nobody — including Jackie and Andrea Wallace of the Appalachian Grill — could see,” he said.

Rome’s Appalachian Grill will be a second location of a downtown Cartersville restaurant owned by the Wallaces.

The restaurant could be complete and ready to open before the rest of the renovation in June, Riddle said.

The expansion of the old Joe Robbins Furniture building will cut into the adjacent Cotton Block Park, although the investors plan to leave part of the park intact. Plans to build a parking lot there have been scrapped.