WHAT’S NEXT
If the planned Sculpture Flats mixed-use project receives the necessary city approvals, work could start next spring, with completion about this time in 2017, officials said.
A Chattanooga developer is planning nearly two dozen new residential units, along with work space, off East Main Street as the Southside's renewal continues to spill down that artery.
"It continues the momentum started [in the Southside]," said Jay Martin, managing partner of the Chattanooga design/build and development firm Renew.
Called Sculpture Flats, the mixed-use development would go up at 1155 E. Main St. on the site of a tire retail store located near well-known sculptor John Henry's studio. The Sculpture Fields at Montague Park also is not far away.
Martin said the mixed-use project, estimated at more than $2 million, would provide 22 residential units, including six live-work flats. In addition, the existing building would be redone and hold about 4,000 square feet of commercial space, he said.
Plans are to erect a pair of three-story buildings next to the commercial building to house one- and two-bedroom apartments and studios, Martin said.
Commercial real estate broker Tom Kale said artists or small business owners may have an interest in the Sculpture Flats space.
Kale said East Main Street is a connector between downtown and Highland Park, where there's a flurry of new development.
"We're just seeing a lot of young entrepreneurial kind of people," he said. "They can't afford the Southside and downtown but it's the same type of people gravitating to Highland Park."
Martin's project recently won approval from the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Regional Planning Agency, and he's seeking the OK of the City Council.
He said people in that area of East Main are looking at branding the area as Cypress Corners, in large part because of Henry's wife's affection for cypress.
"We're creating a new neighborhood from Central Avenue to Holtzclaw Avenue," Martin said.
He said that the nearby Southside's population is growing, more amenities are coming in and those also can serve Cypress Corners.
Martin and Kale said there are other developments planned or underway in the area as well.
"We saw this right in the middle of that and this is a great opportunity to jump-start that existing momentum," Martin said.
He said rents would be "affordable," though he didn't provide figures.
Martin said plans are to start work on the project in the spring if it receives the needed approvals from the city. He expect that the development could be complete about this time next year.
"We saw this as a tremendous opportunity," Martin said.
Contact Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6318.