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Mayor Tim Kelly says feds using ‘short-sighted lens’ to choose new courthouse site

Staff File Photo / A Vine Street location is where the U.S. government wants to build a federal courthouse, but Unum uses it for employee parking and says it's not for sale. Staff File Photo / A Vine Street location is where the U.S. government wants to build a federal courthouse, but Unum uses it for employee parking and says it's not for sale.

By David Floyd February 2, 2026 4 min read

Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly said it’s stunning that the General Services Administration is still insisting on putting a new federal courthouse on a site near Vine Street despite local opposition — including from U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn.

“This is a 100-year decision,” Kelly said in an interview Monday. “And that’s the problem is that they’re using a very shortsighted lens to dictate this.”

Blackburn and other local stakeholders met with GSA leaders on Jan. 16 to discuss alternatives to the federal government’s preferred location for the project. However, the agency’s administrator, Edward Forst, said in a letter on Jan. 30 that GSA remains committed to a 4-acre parcel bound by East Fifth Street, Lindsay Street, Vine Street and Georgia Avenue, most of which is owned by insurance giant Unum.

Local leaders have consistently argued the Tennessee Valley Authority’s downtown Chattanooga office complex is a better location for the project, stating it could help maintain downtown vibrancy and animate interest in the city center.