A group of businessmen will pursue taxpayer financing for a $9 million road allowing them to build a $500 million mountaintop development in Chattanooga.
The 3,000-acre Black Creek Mountain development will sit on top of Aetna Mountain and developers want to secure a creative financing mechanism called a TIF, or tax increment financing, to pave their path to the top.
If approved by city and county officials, it would mark the first time that tax increment financing has been successfully used in Chattanooga.
“You’ve got a private buyer here who is simultaneously borrow and creditor,” said Ric Ebersole, vice chairman of the Chattanooga Industrial Development Board.
Backers call the area “the last undeveloped mountain in Chattanooga,” and the blueprint by development group MSBC Black Creek calls for a planned mountain community that could rival the communities on Lookout Mountain and Signal Mountain.