With thousands of Chattanooga Lookouts fans expected to be driving to the new stadium in just over a year, officials are trying to avert gridlock in a part of the city many motorists have had little reason to visit in decades.
City Engineer Bill Payne said Thursday that Chattanooga’s transportation team met with state officials Wednesday to help understand the traffic impact of the $115 million stadium on the South Broad District with a planned early 2026 opening.
“It’s a ripple in a pond. It has more impact closer, but it’s still felt further out,” Payne said in an interview after a Chattanooga-Hamilton County Sports Authority meeting. “Geographically, it’s larger than a typical traffic study.”
(READ MORE: Stadium groundbreaking draws hundreds)
At the Lookouts current home on the city’s riverfront, builders of AT&T Field more than 20 years ago depended almost entirely on downtown’s existing parking network.
Panel member Ann Weeks said at the meeting she’d like an update on the traffic study for the new stadium.
“Please send over the information, and then we can get a report showing what’s happening,” she said. “Let the board know, and make it an agenda item.”
Stadium financing
— $80 million: Sales of taxable and tax-exempt bonds to be paid back mostly by new city and county tax revenue
— $26 million: Private loans obtained by the Lookouts and landowner, paid back with new city property tax revenue in a 470-acre tax district around the stadium
— $5 million: Sports authority debt, repaid from the city’s property tax revenue and potentially hotel-motel taxes or local sales taxes
— $3 million: Up-front contribution from the Lookouts along with $1 million interest earnings on the bonds
— $1 million: Minimum Lookouts will pay annually in rent
The replacement for AT&T Field is viewed by city, county and other officials as the linchpin of a potential $1 billion in new development in and around the old U.S. Pipe/Wheland Foundry tract between Broad Street and Interstate 24.
“It will bring increased prosperity to the area,” Jason Freier, the Lookouts managing partner, said recently about the ballpark that’s to have 6,000 to 7,000 seats and provide room for more patrons on a standing-room-only basis.
In addition to game dates for the minor league baseball team, Freier said he foresees concerts, high school sports, soccer and charity events among hundreds of uses annually for the new publicly and privately financed stadium.
The 140-acre foundry parcel, where stadium construction is well underway, has sat largely unused since the closing of manufacturing operations decades ago. As a result, the South Broad District has suffered.
On Thursday, Payne said local and state officials are conducting a regional review of traffic. A consultant for the property owner has prepared a traffic impact study specifically related to the stadium, he said.
Payne said that study doesn’t include the entire area where an Atlanta company is crafting a master development plan that’s slated to include a slew of housing, retail, office and other possible projects.
“Ordinarily, a traffic impact study would look at those areas which are closest,” he said. “In this case, with the amount of traffic there, there will be a review of (other) intersections and roads.”
(READ MORE: Lookouts foresee hundred of uses a year for ballpark)
The city engineer said the Tennessee Department of Transportation will make suggestions.
Some steps are expected to include immediate fixes while others will take longer, Payne said.
“What do the traffic patterns look like, and how do people get to access points?” he said officials are asking.
Payne said he expects more traffic information will be ready in the first part of next year for the board to review.
Contact Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6318.