Though the relative progress of two ambitious Chattanooga redevelopment projects may seem ripe for comparison, the deals behind the new Lookouts stadium and the riverfront commercial district known as The Bend are fundamentally different, according to elected officials, developers and experts.
The projects, both portrayed as on time by their supporters and tardy by their critics, are leading to fresh tensions between the city and Hamilton County in the weeks leading up to the first pitch at Erlanger Park.
In one deal, city and county officials agreed, to varying degrees, to back $112 million of debt to pay for a minor league baseball stadium. Paying off the stadium rests on the ability of a developer from Atlanta named Jim Irwin to transform the blighted former foundry land around the ballpark into a $1 billion mixed-use district.
In the other deal, a local developer named Jimmy White has invested at least $15 million in infrastructure and taken on a $47.5 million loan with the hope of being paid back someday as he works to attract nearly $1 billion in office, retail, residential and entertainment projects. The neighborhood is set to include a 330-slip marina and possibly an amphitheater.
Private development around the stadium is behind a schedule laid out in a development contract. The only private investment that will be under construction or completed around the stadium at the time it opens is a beer garden in a historic foundry building.