Fast fact
More than 2,000 apartments are planned, underway or recently completed in the downtown area, figures show.
A Knoxville developer has plans to build 220 new apartments near Erlanger hospital in one of the largest downtown Chattanooga rental projects to date.
Belle Investment is proposing a five-story building at East Third Street and Central Avenue that also could hold a pharmacy and 6,000 square feet of added retail.
"It really starts changing the way people view that [Third Street] corridor," said Kim White, who heads the nonprofit downtown redevelopment group River City Co., about the proposed complex. "It would be a catalyst."
David Robinette, an engineer for the project, said plans call for three or four stories of parking in the rear of the structure backing up against Fourth Street. In addition, there would be ground level parking for the 10,000-square-foot pharmacy, he said.
The apartments likely would be studio, one- and two-bedroom in size, said Robinette, of SITE Inc.
White said the apartments could hold medical residents working at Erlanger or potentially students at the nearby University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
"Erlanger is putting residents in Hixson and Red Bank," she said. "It would be wonderful to walk back and forth" between the hospital and the apartments.
If the plan receives zoning approval from the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Planning Commission this month and the City Council next month, construction could start in about six months with completion some 18 months later, Robinette said.
The project's total cost isn't known. But a 210-unit apartment building slated for 1400 Chestnut St. downtown is pegged at costing $26.4 million. Also, the former Loft restaurant site on the North Shore is to hold 185 apartments in a $37 million development.
In addition, the Cameron Harbor project off Riverfront Parkway includes 235 apartments in an estimated $100 million project that will have 91 detached homes, 19 townhomes, and 30 condos when entirely built out.
The proposed apartment complex on Third Street calls for rezoning about 2.6 acres that now hold a variety of older buildings with mostly office space. The existing buildings would be removed to make room for the new construction, according to the proposal.
The top floor also would hold a terrace and clubhouse, according to plans submitted to city planners.
Erlanger and other officials last year scoped out a $300 million plan to transform its campus with the planned new children's hospital and other future developments which have given fresh attention to Third Street.
The first phase at Erlanger is the $35 million children's outpatient center. Hospital officials announced in January that they've raised a third of the needed money.
The second phase is the Children's Hospital Inpatient Center, which will be attached to the outpatient center, while the third phase would be a combined women's and infants' pavilion.
Contact Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6318.