Vacant apartments are seen Tuesday at the former Harriet Tubman housing project on Roanoke Avenue.The Chicago-based Lakewood Realty Group doesn’t have the $2.8 million that it promised to purchase the Harriet Tubman public housing site.
But the company has offered the Chattanooga Housing Authority $500,000 if CHA agrees to give it until Jan. 22 to wire the money. Lakewood said if it failed again, CHA could keep the $50,000 earnest money that it paid in October plus the $500,000.
CHA board members, however, said no deal.
They had a special called meeting today at 1:30, just 90 minutes before they were scheduled to close with Lakewood at 3 p.m.
City Council Chairman Yusuf Hakeem attended the meeting and told housing officials that the city and residents who lived or worked near the 440-unit Tubman housing site were interested in a higher use for the property than it becoming a low-income housing site again. Hakeem said the city wants to use it for industry to get people jobs.