SoHo-style apartments planned for Chattanooga's Southside

A new apartment building is slated for East 14th Street near the Chattanooga Choo Choo and The Terminal building.
A new apartment building is slated for East 14th Street near the Chattanooga Choo Choo and The Terminal building.

More new apartments appear headed for the Southside after a developer won the OK from a planning panel Monday for a four-story building adjacent to the Chattanooga Choo Choo.

Developer Duane Carleo also said a nearby existing two-story structure built in 1904 off the East 14th Street site will be remodeled to hold apartments as part of the project he estimated costing under $2 million.

"Working with my architect Thomas Johnson, we used the SoHo buildings in New York City for inspiration," he said after the proposal won rezoning from manufacturing to central business zone from the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Planning Commission. The project still must be approved by the City Council.

In all, about 14 one-bedroom apartments would be constructed at 24 E. 14th St., with the ground floor holding commercial space, Carleo said.

If approved, work could begin this summer and finish about six months later, said Hodgen Mainda, a business consultant working on the apartments.

Carleo put the apartment rents at about $1,100 per month at the buildings, which provide about 14,000 square feet of space.

He said the project is his first building from the ground up, although he has done numerous rehabs of historic buildings in Knoxville's historic Old City. Part of the site of the apartments proposed by Carleo previously housed a horse barn used to house animals and carriages used by one of Chattanooga's downtown horse carriages.

"I grew up right outside New York City in North Jersey," said Carleo, who now lives in Hixson. "I have always loved the architecture of the buildings in New York City, mainly the downtown and SoHo areas. With the historic buildings of the Southside and along with the Chattanooga Choo Choo, this design seems to fit perfect."

The developer said he's also looking at opening a nightclub in the Southside off Market Street.

The Southside is seeing an array of new apartment space. Earlier this year, a $7 million apartment building at Market and Main streets opened and holds 63 one- and two-story units.

Renters are paying upward of $1,350 a month for a two-bedroom unit.

"It's the vibe of the Southside," said Misson on Main developer John Wise about why people want to live at the apartment building, which also has ground-floor retail space.

Just a few blocks away on South Broad Street, Wise is eyeing construction of 179 apartments near Finley Stadium and his Southside Social bowling alley and entertainment complex. Those plans call for a four-level apartment building on Chestnut Street across from Finley and a three-story structure nearby facing West 20th Street.

Close by, at South Broad and West 17th streets, J.A. Murphy Group LLC of Knoxville recently tore down buildings to make way for 158 apartments in a $24 million project.

Monthly rents will go from $1,250 to $1,300 monthly on that five-level project slated to go up next to the Pilgrim's chicken processing plant.

Just across South Broad, Chattanooga developer John Straussberger is planning a $5 million mixed-use project in a former Chevrolet dealership.

At the Choo Choo, 98 hotel rooms were recently converted into apartments called Passenger Flats.

Contact Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6318.

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