New stadiums for professional sports in the Chattanooga area are springing up and spurring plans for an array of development around the venues.
The newest stadium is the proposed Chattanooga Lookouts ballpark in the city's South Broad area where officials say they foresee upwards of $1 billion in housing, office and commercial development to come within a 470-acre special tax district.
Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly says that without the proposed multiuse stadium, slated on the old U.S. Pipe/Wheland Foundry site off Broad Street, there would be little investment.
"We've seen this model work over and over again in cities just like ours, and I'm confident that we have a solid plan in place that will bring opportunity and prosperity to our community in the years to come," Kelly says about the facility that's to open in spring 2025.
Jim Irwin, the Atlanta developer hired to oversee redevelop of the former foundry site where the new Lookouts stadium is planned, is working on plans for residential, office and retail projects around the stadium in what he calls "lightning in a bottle."
"Not only will this result in economic development, but more importantly to me, it will result in spectacular places."
In East Ridge, Utah developer Bob Martino has built CHI Memorial Stadium at Interstate-75 and Interstate-24 and brought the Red Wolves soccer team to the site.
Martino's plan is to redevelop a 110-acre vacant tract around the stadium. It calls for 400 apartment and condominium units, 375 hotel rooms, 475,000 square feet of commercial space and a network of walking and nature trails.
Called The Gateway, the proposed project will be the biggest investment ever in East Ridge and is projected to create up to 1,200 jobs, officials say.
East Ridge Mayor Brian Williams says that for years the property had remained dormant. He considers the proposed complex is "an extraordinary project" -- "a game-changer" for the city due to increased sales and property tax revenues.
While officials say the coronavirus pandemic slowed the project, earlier this year Martino put the residential and commercial development's first townhomes up for sale. Four units of the proposed 144 townhomes are on the market, with eight more to be ready soon.
Martino says the residential component begins to round out the experience of The Gateway.
"Residents will be able to live, shop, walk to dinner and catch a game or concert all within their own neighborhood," he says.
Around the planned Lookouts ballpark, a number of housing and other developments are underway or on the drawing board and more are envisioned.
A Cambridge Square-like project with retail shops, offices, housing and green space is eyed for a vacant 5-acre tract at Broad and West 33rd Street located close to the planned stadium.
Chattanooga developer Claudia Pullen says the proposed $60 million project is to be "something like Cambridge Square, but urbanized." Cambridge Square is a mixed-use project in Ooltewah on a much larger site started more than a decade ago as builders foresaw an eat, work and play development.
The vacant South Broad area tract is adjacent to a sprawling apartment and townhouse project called Borough 33 that's starting to lease up in a project that was estimated at about $75 million when it was proposed. Developers are erecting a 300-unit apartment complex as well as 76 townhomes on the nearly 10-acre tract.
Meanwhile, work has begun on about 300 more apartments and townhouses just few blocks away from the site of the future Lookouts ballpark. That project, estimated at $60 million to $80 million, would put the planned housing in the heart of the South Broad District on a now mostly vacant tract in the vicinity of Williams and West 27th streets, an official says.
Also, a separate townhouse complex is going up between St. Elmo Avenue and Chattanooga Creek in the area. Some 60 townhomes, priced between $400,000 to $600,000, will sit on the former industrial tract, says David Tudor, owner of Nashville-based Tudor Building Group.
"It's a great part of town that's coming alive," Tudor says. "It's hitting its stride." He says the project is expected to reach up to $40 million when fully built.
In addition, RFM Development Co. has won approval to build a seven-story apartment complex adjacent to the former foundry site. That plan at 2378 Chestnut St. calls for 245 one- and two-bedroom apartments coupled with bottom floor commercial space on the property.
Also, Core Development of Nashville has indicated it's looking at redeveloping 11 acres in a potential $160 million residential and commercial project near the planned ballpark.