Timothy Boyle, president of City Property Company, (close) speaks to developers during a July 2014 tour of the former Standard Coosa Thatcher facility.A proposal to transform the abandoned and partially burned Standard-Coosa-Thatcher textile mill into affordable housing in return for a 19-year tax break comes before the Chattanooga City Council on Tuesday.
The $35 million Standard Coosa Artists Lofts project calls for a 170-unit complex of two-bedroom apartments and oversized lofts on the 100-year-old industrial site at 1800 S. Watkins St. The 350,000-square-foot property sits in the midst of an area of industrial blight between East Main and East 23rd Street, just west of Missionary Ridge.
The payment-in-lieu-of-taxes (PILOT) proposal will restrict tenant income levels to 60 percent of the area's average median income (AMI). According to 2016 Housing and Urban Development figures, Hamilton County's AMI is $61,300. The top income for a household of one is $25,740, and for a household of four is $36,720.
Developer Tim Boyle, president of St. Louis-based City Property Co., has called the project a great opportunity to create affordable housing.
"By capping income limits at 60 percent of AMI, the project by definition [achieves that goal]," Boyle said in a phone interview Friday. "In addition to that, the project has an economic development component as well."
In 2014, the developer said the design for the complex aims for a live-work-play community focused on artists. Plans incorporate a rooftop terrace, an interior garden and a number of artist-minded amenities.
Helen Burns Sharp, the leader of citizen watchdog group Accountability for Taxpayer Money, has offered praise for the Standard-Coosa-Thatcher plan.
In July, while the Chattanooga mayor's office revised its affordable housing PILOT program, Sharp said in an email to city officials she believed Boyle's proposal "has the potential for being an excellent PILOT."
The planned mill overhaul dates back at least three years, Boyle said. It is a project worth the determination and tenacity to see it come to fruition, he said.
In February 2015, the Standard-Coosa-Thatcher site made the National Register of Historic Places, a key piece of the development's financing strategy, Boyle said at the time. With such a designation, the rehabilitation project will be eligible for historic tax credits.
A July fire would not sidetrack his development plans either, he said after a two-alarm blaze scorched some of the property. The fire only underscored the need for revitalizing the site, Boyle said.
Aside from the redevelopment plan proposed by City Property Co., Chattanooga will receive a $200,000 loan from the Environmental Protection Agency to help fund cleanup of the dilapidated site.
Boyle has said he hopes to break ground early next year if he can reach a tax break agreement with the city.
Contact staff writer Paul Leach at 423-757-6481 or pleach@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @pleach_tfp.