NORTH SHORE PIPELINE
New developments underway or planned for the North Shore are estimated at more than $70 million: * The Marlin, 419 N. Market, retail/office, $2 million * 300 Cherokee, 300 Cherokee Blvd., retail, $6 million * Cherokee and Manning Street, retail/office, $3.5 million * The Loft site, Cherokee and Manning, apartments, $37 million * Knitting Mill site, Manufacturers Road, retail, $11.5 million * Cherokee and Manufacturers, apartments, $10 million * 427 Cherokee Blvd., office/retail, $1.9 million Source: Developers
A Chattanooga development group has begun work on its third ongoing retail and office project on the North Shore, pushing its new investment in the area to more than $10 million.
The new venture, coupled with others already underway or planned on the North Shore by other companies, brings to more than $70 million the value of announced new developments in the area, figures show.
A top official for the Fletcher Bright Co., now with three mixed-use projects underway, termed the North Shore "a vibrant market."
"It's got a great mix of condos, apartments and single-family homes with proximity to everything," said Cardon Smith, a company vice president.
The latest project involves demolition work on an existing 12,000-square-foot building at North Market and Bush streets across from the Publix parking lot.
Plans are to refurbish the 35-year-old structure in a retail and office development estimated at more than $2 million, Smith said.
When finished next year, the building will be called The Marlin, he said. That's named after a former owner of the property who had a clothing store at the site, Smith said.
The development company already has one tenant for the former office building, Four Bridges Family Dentistry, which will occupy 2,400 square feet on the second floor, he said.
The site also has about 40 parking spaces, though that's probably not enough on which to put in a restaurant, Smith said.
Kim White, who heads the local nonprofit redevelopment group River City Co., said the interest by Fletcher Bright Co. says a lot about the opportunity its officials see in the market.
"That whole area is really starting to take shape," she said, citing other North Shore projects underway.
White said she doesn't see any end in sight, especially in the Market and Cherokee corridors.
"There are so many under-utilized buildings in that area changing hands," she said. "I don't see it stopping."
White said infill development on existing buildings or on vacant smaller lots helps connect the city.
Two weeks ago, Fletcher Bright Co. announced another reuse of an existing North Shore building on Cherokee Boulevard in a $6 million project. A steel and concrete structure at 300 Cherokee, next to the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Business Development Center, will undergo renovation.
An 8,000-square-foot brewery with tasting room and bar for the Heaven and Ale Brewing Co. will anchor that project.
Also, the company is finishing a mixed-use development at Cherokee and Manning Street. That new $3.5 million, three-story brick building is slated to have office, retail or restaurant uses.
In 2007, Fletcher Bright Co. built the 203-unit One North Shore condominium project off Manufacturers Road that also holds office and retail space.
Also on Cherokee Boulevard, Vision Hospitality Group, Chattanooga's largest hotel developer, is building an 84-unit apartment complex that officials estimated will cost "north of $10 million."
On Manufacturers Road, Atlanta developer David Woodbery of the Woodbery Group paid $3.55 million for the Knitting Mill Antiques building. He plans to spend another $8 million upgrading the brick, 60,000-square-foot, two-and-a-half-story structure.
That building's first and second floors will be converted into a space for boutiques, specialty food shops, offices - and a second restaurant at the building's opposite end from Food Works, which will remain.
In addition, a Franklin, Tenn., company plans to redevelop the former Loft restaurant site at Cherokee and Manning in a project that's to hold 185 apartments in a $37 million development.
Contact Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6318.