Staff Photo by Dan Henry / The Chattanooga Times Free Press- 3/16/16 Construction continues on a new apartment/commercial building being built on the 700 block of Market Street on Wednesday, March 16, 2016. Retail findings
› Downtown has large gaps for regional retailers› Urban-format Target and/or Home Depot can be supported› Demand for pharmacies, a grocery, clothing, office supply and sporting goods stores› About 21,000 square feet of demand for restaurants and/or drinking establishments› Construction costs and parking are challenges in that most land uses can’t support structured parking in standalone configurationsSource: Noell Consulting Group
With more Chattanoogans living downtown and a flurry of new residential rooftops underway or planned, the city center can now support big-box retailers such as Target or Home Depot, a study says.
“Chattanooga has reached a threshold of in-town residents,” said David Laube, a principal in the Atlanta firm Noell Consulting Group. “It has kind of reached that critical mass.”
The study, commissioned by the downtown nonprofit redevelopment group River City Co., said there’s a need for 600,000 square feet of additional retail space downtown. Such stores could include a smaller-format, urban grocery store as well as drug stores.
Laube mentioned such grocers as Sprouts and Earth Fare as potential matches.