By NEAL WAGNER / City Editor

A new restaurant named Creekview Café could be opening before the end of the year in the former Incahoots restaurant location in Helena.

Hoover resident Paul Rohrbach recently purchased the building off Shelby County 261 near the Helena Buck Creek dam, and said he is working to open the new restaurant in the next few months.

“We are excited about the possibilities. People in Helena are really excited to see some activity there,” Rohrbach said. “I’ve had several people see my car in the parking lot and stop and ask me what I was doing.

“I’ve given several people a tour of the empty building and kind of shared what we are going to try to do there,” Rohrbach added.

Rohrbach said the restaurant will be split into a bar section and a grill section, and likely will feature various seafood, Southern cooking and “comfort food” items. He said he plans to “take full advantage” of the building’s large deck overlooking the dam.

“We are thinking about putting rocking chairs out there so people can just come spend time and relax,” Rohrbach said, noting the restaurant will be open for lunch and dinner. “We don’t want anyone to feel like they are being rushed through our restaurant. We want everyone to spend as much time there as they want.”

Rohrbach said he is looking to incorporate a historical Helena theme in the restaurant by hanging old photos of the history-rich city and possibly providing information on some of Helena’s oldest landmarks.

“We may have areas that explain how different things got there, like the dam,” Rohrbach said. “Most people don’t even know why the dam is there.”

The new business will be the first in the large building off Shelby County 261 near Helena’s Buck Creek dam since the Incahoots restaurant closed its doors in early 2009. Harold Deason and his wife, Claudia, moved Incahoots to Helena in 1998 after operating the business in Hoover for 14 years.

Rohrbach called the building a “fantastic facility,” and said he was surprised it sat vacant for more than two years.

“We think we’ve got a solid plan. We just want to offer something different from everyone else,” he said. “I think it’s going to be really fun.”