Artists living on Southside30 working artists live on Chattanooga’s Southside.Artists have bought homes collectively valued at more than $4.9 million.Local organization ArtsMove provides up to $2,500 in moving expenses for artists willing to relocate.Artists living in targeted areas also can receive up to $15,000 off their mortgages.
With condo options plentiful in downtown Chattanooga, more affordable housing choices still are needed, says one key player in the city’s urban development.
“(Downtown) Chattanooga still doesn’t have enough apartments,” RiverCity Co. CEO Kim White said. “And that’s the one part we really need. Housing for a work force. Housing that’s affordable.”
More apartments would help encourage people who normally would not be able to afford or even consider buying a condo to move into the downtown area. Chattanooga still needs “a lot more people living downtown,” Ms. White added, in order to attract more services such as grocery and drug stores.
RiverCity Co., the nonprofit organization that has helped plan and execute downtown’s future for more than 20 years, has at least two projects in the works that Ms. White said she hopes will add to the dynamics of the downtown housing market.
One apartment development is the Mission on Main at Main and Market streets. Another development is the Walnut Hill Apartments in the Bluff View area, and both projects will add about 100 units for rent downtown.
Ms. White said RiverCity hopes to have the financing for the projects finalized by the end of the year.
In the meantime, affordable condos as well as more traditional housing options in neighborhoods like Jefferson Heights are helping to ensure that people in all economic brackets will have choices when it comes to living downtown.
Jefferson Heights, which in recent years has attracted many artists to the south side of Chattanooga’s downtown through special grants, in January won an excellence award from the Chattanooga-Hamilton Regional Planning Agency for helping to contribute more than $12 million in direct investment in the city.
And even condo sales are on the upswing, said Darlene Brown of Real Estate Partners, noting that inventory ranges from $175,000 to about $2 million per unit.
Specializing in downtown condo sales, Ms. Brown said the past four months have yielded an increased amount of interest in condos despite a persistent reluctance by banks to finance such sales. Ms. Brown said in the last two months there even has been an increased number of closings.
“I think in a couple of years all our condo inventory will be sold, and people who have chosen to invest in real estate downtown will see that they’ve invested wisely,” Ms. Brown says. “Downtown Chattanooga just has too much to offer.”