Contributed photo New cottage homes, apartments and townhouses are going up at Cameron Harbor on Chattanooga's downtown waterfront. One of the project's developers also is looking at putting in new condominiums.
The BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee gold building at 801 Pine St., has been purchased by developers Ken and Byron DeFoor for $6.15 million.
Staff photo by Dan Henry/Chattanooga Times Free PressDowntown development
In the next two years, developers are planning to add to central city: * 1,500 new apartments * 1,331 more beds for UTC students * 526 hotel rooms * $400 million of new private investment Source: River City Co.
Downtown developers are building or planning a record $400 million of new projects in Chattanooga's urban core that could more than double the housing stock in the central city and add hundreds more hotel rooms and dozens more stores and restaurants in the coming decade, the head of Chattanooga's downtown development agency said today.
In a speech to the Downtown Rotary Club, River City Co. President Kim White said the investments are building on the success of earlier riverfront, business and tourism attractions in the central city and reflect the growing interest among residents wanting to live downtown.
"For 30 years, we've focused on building a vibrant downtown," White told Rotarians today. "Now we are in the process of filling in many of the gaps with people who not only want to work and play downtown but live downtown as well."
The new projects include a $53 million plan by developer Ken Defoor to turn the former headquarters of BlueCross and BlueShield of Tennessee on Pine Street into a luxuryWestin hotel and nearly $100 million of residential development from new apartments, condominiums and single-family homes in Cameron Harbor along Riverfront Parkway.
Currently, there are 1,271 apartments in downtown Chattanooga, White said. In the next year and a half, downtown is expected to add 1,500 new apartments, 1,331 beds for UTC students and 526 hotel rooms from new projects at the Chattanooga Choo Cho0, Douglas Heights Apartments, Cameron Harbor, the 700 block of Market Street, the Clemons Apartments, a new hotel near the Walnut Street Bridge and renovations of the Chattanooga Bank and Maclellan buildings downtown, among other projects.
"This is such an exciting time for our city," White said.
White says her group wants to boost the number of downtown residents from 3,700 to over 12,000. According to the Nielsen Co., 62 percent of Millennials prefer to live in mixed-use communities found in urban centers, closer to shops, restaurants and the office.
"This generation, as well as retirees, desires a different kind of life," White said.
If all of the projects on the planning board proceed, the downtown investment would more than triple the $120 million 21st century waterfront projects that revamped the downtown riverfront and its tourism attractions a decade and a half ago.