CHA Board Meeting

Chattanooga Housing Authority officials are looking for someone to help sell CHA properties.

Members of the housing authority’s board of directors agreed Tuesday to receive proposals from brokerage and real estate service firms to market the sale or lease of surplus CHA real estate. Plans are to send proposal requests to such companies this week, said Eddie Holmes, chairman of the housing authority board.

Money from the sales will be used to pay off the housing authority’s $4.5 million debt. The authority is scheduled to report to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development by Aug. 11 about its plans to repay the debt.

“We would like to tell HUD that we have secured a firm to help move our property or to at least be in discussion,” Mr. Holmes said Tuesday.

“We want someone with a track record who knows something about moving commercial property,” he said.

Properties for sale include the housing authority’s central office building on North Holtzclaw Avenue for $5 million, the former Maurice Poss Homes housing development site for $3 million and Fairmont Avenue apartments and Gurley Street apartments, priced at $180,000 each, officials said.

Most of these properties “are not producing any revenue,” said Naveed Minhas, CHA’s vice president of development.

The authority has been trying to sell property for the past few months, but hardly any money has been made so far, Mr. Minhas said. The authority’s Grove Street property recently sold for $360,000, but CHA had a $300,000 loan on the property, so the housing authority received only $60,000 from the sale, he said.

Furthermore, that sale was under way before the housing authority announced its financial trouble, he said.

With sale of some property and other cost-cutting measures, housing authority officials predict the authority will break even by the end of the year.