After bringing new apartments to downtown Chattanooga just last month, a developer is eyeing more units with a potential four-story, North Shore building near Publix.
Chattanooga businessman Vyomesh Desai, whose group recently opened The Clemons in the central city, is seeking rezoning of a tract off North Market Street where he's looking at putting 84 apartments.
But Desai said the new apartment building is just one concept he has for the site and it's not final.
"We wanted to get this in front of the city, to get their official opinion on it," he said, adding that he doesn't yet own the property that consists of a vacant lot and a building that's zoned manufacturing at West Bell Avenue and North Market.
Desai also said he hasn't talked with the neighborhood association yet.
"We're looking at what the zoning is to allow and what the neighborhood association is allowing us to do," he said. "It's way preliminary."
Downtown has seen a variety of new housing, mostly apartments, over the past few years. More than 2,000 apartments are planned, underway or recently completed in the central city area, figures show.
On the North Shore, Vision Hospitality Group is building a five-story, 84-unit apartment building off Cherokee Boulevard near Renaissance Park in a project estimated at more than $10 million.
Also, the former Loft restaurant site at Cherokee Boulevard and Manning Street is to hold 185 apartments in a planned $37 million development by a Franklin, Tenn., company.
Last month, Desai and Narav Shah officially opened The Clemons, which holds 54 loft-style apartments, in a project that cost nearly $7.5 million in the central city at Chestnut and Eighth streets.
They rehabbed the old Clemons Bros. furniture manufacturing and sales building into one-, two- and three-bedroom units ranging from 590 to 1,200 square feet. Rents at The Clemons range from $1,075 to $1,800 a month.
Desai said he is "absolutely" pleased with the way The Clemons worked out. The group repurposed a forgotten building while saving its history, he said.
Desai said he was waiting to hear back from the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Regional Planning Agency staff about his request for the North Market site.
"It may not be that size and scope," he said about the rezoning request he submitted.
Despite the array of new housing built or planned for downtown, there's still a demand for more rental units, a recent study from Atlanta firm Noell Consulting Group showed.
David Laube, a principal in the firm, said the study estimated future growth at about 150 new apartments a year. Also, more rental housing is needed for students downtown - 598 beds, or 51 per year, for the next 12 years - said the study done for nonprofit downtown redevelopment group River City Co.
Laube said Chattanooga's downtown housing story is different than in many markets, which are suffering from an oversupply.
He said Chattanooga is benefiting from out-of-town developers who have in the past looked at bigger cities such as Atlanta or Nashville, but are now eyeing secondary markets such as Chattanooga, which tend to be less competitive for projects.
"That's a lot of where this growth potential and new opportunity will come from," Laube said.
Contact Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6318.