Staff photo by Brian Lazenby
Construction continues on a $6 million dental office building at 951 Riverfront Parkway. The building is scheduled to open in May 2010.

Development continues along a section of Riverfront Parkway where $360 million in planned projects have been announced.

The latest work is a $6 million dental building going up at 951 Riverfront Parkway.

Kim White, chief executive of the nonprofit developer RiverCity Co., praised the planning and improvements that have taken place along the riverfront.

“It’s great anytime you have private development and private money going into improving downtown,” she said.

Chattanooga developer Bob McKenzie is behind the dental office project and joins Alstom, SIAG Aerisyn and another private developer among those making big investments in the downtown waterfront near Riverfront Parkway and M.L. King Boulevard.

A partnership of seven dentists have agreed to move their practices into the 25,000-square-foot facility when it opens, Mr. Mc-Kenzie said.

“They wanted to combine forces and get into nice, new Class A medical office space,” he said.

The building is expected to open in May 2010 and will be occupied by orthodontist Dr. Jim McDaniel, children’s dentist Dr. Fred Whitmire and general dentists Dr. Joe Payne, Dr. James Kimball, Dr. Chuck Felts, Dr. Greg Osmundsen and Dr. Chuck Holt.

Nearby, Alstom is spending $280 million to upgrade and expand its Riverfront Parkway facility where it will make steam and gas turbines for nuclear and fossil power plant construction in the United States.

SIAG Aerisyn is investing about $3 million in its plant along Riverfront Parkway that builds towers for wind turbines. The new investment is expected to create 115 new jobs.

Chattanooga developer Eugene “Buck” Schimpf has announced plans for an $80 million mixed-use waterfront development in the area.

He envisions townhouses, a hotel, a restaurant and condominiums in the project known as Cameron Harbor on a nine-acre tract on the former Jones-Blair Co. property.

Brad Shelton, an architect with Elemi and project manager for the new dental office development, said officials are seeking Silver LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification by the U.S. Green Building Council.

He said a number of environmentally friendly features are being incorporated into the building and the construction process such as the use of solar panels, high performance glass, and precast concrete that prevents fly ash from being sent to a landfill.