The old U.S. Pipe site is seen next to a new section of the Tennessee Riverwalk parallel to South Broad Street in this 2015 photo. The Riverwalk extension into St. Elmo is helping draw interest from developers.A 122-unit apartment building, coupled with the most retail space to come to a part of South Broad Street in decades, is in the works near Lookout Mountain.
Two nearby parcels on South Broad are eyed for the project which includes a four-story apartment complex and 21,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space, said Brande Benson, a commercial real estate broker for Baker, Storey and McDonald.
"We just like the corridor," she said of the development group, which includes people both in and outside the city. "It's a highly trafficked area."
The new project joins others going up or planned for the South Broad Street area, roughly located between Interstate 24 and Lookout Mountain, valued collectively at more than $50 million.
Last month, another group of developers proposed $30 million in new apartments, townhouses, single-family homes and commercial space in the area. Collier Construction also is building a planned $20 million development just behind Southern Saddlery that is to hold single-family homes, townhouses and commercial space.
In the latest proposal, the apartment building would rise at South Broad and West 33rd streets, Benson said. The bottom level would include about 11,000 square feet of shops, she said.
That site, which the group owns, would hold two levels of parking, one underground, as well as a pool for apartment residents, she said. The apartments will be one and two bedrooms in size, though Benson said she didn't know the rents yet.
About a block away, at South Broad and West 32nd streets, the development group has a contract on a parcel that formerly held a Long John Silver's restaurant, said Benson.
She said the former eatery will be torn down and about 10,000 square feet of retail space will go on the tract. In addition, an entry point to a new section of Riverwalk will sit just behind that location, the broker said.
"We think it will be very successful," she said.
Benson didn't know a start date nor how much the proposed project will cost.
Mike Harrell, president of the nonprofit South Broad Redevelopment Group, said there's a lot of momentum in the area.
"We're the last developable area close to downtown," said Harrell, who heads the group of business people and property owners.
He cited the planned extension of the Riverwalk from downtown to St. Elmo as helping draw the attention of developers.
"It did what we wanted it to do," he said.
Mike Mallen, who heads a group that has 141 undeveloped acres made up of the former U.S. Pipe and Wheland Foundry sites off South Broad, said the Riverwalk is traversing that tract as well.
He said each smaller development in the area adds "critical mass."
"We think it's very positive," Mallen said about the newest development. "It's a rising tide that floats all boats."
He said his group is receiving "significantly more inquiries" from national names interested in the large parcel.
Contact Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress.com or 757-6318.