An early blueprint of the South Broad District’s future unveiled last Thursday includes a multi-use minor league baseball park anchoring an array of housing and new retail and green space.
“It has the potential to be a catalyst of other development,” Noell Consulting’s David Laube said about a possible new Chattanooga Lookouts stadium and entertainment venue. “You can make them more than just a ballpark.”
The preliminary vision for the 10-square-block district also called for better connecting Howard School with the rest of the area, and potentially adding a new middle school.
An expanded Harris Johnson Park, a potential greenway along Chattanooga Creek, a mix of new housing in Southside Gardens and improvements to Broad Street and other traffic arteries in the area were also among highlights of the plan.
The 141-acre foundry property, now mostly vacant, would hold the potential ballpark and undergo vast changes, according to planners. Planners said the ballpark, which could replace the existing downtown AT&T Field, could serve as a gateway feature to Chattanooga for motorists arriving from Nashville on Interstate 24.