City Center plan image of Patten Parkway
City Center plan image of Miller ParkCity planners are working on a public-private partnership to inject new life into Chattanooga’s center city with an ambitious multi-million dollar road map to boost parking, build apartments and bolster pedestrian access.
The plan, which includes a laundry list of proposals big and small, comes amid the shuttering of a half-dozen downtown restaurants in recent months and stalled efforts to recruit more retailers.
“While we have 55,000 workers downtown, after 5 p.m. it shuts down,” said Kim White, CEO of nonprofit downtown development group River City Co. “We’ve been really actively trying to push retail, but there have been challenges in that because there’s just not enough foot traffic.”
A new city center study, which cost $250,000 to produce, calls for a new 500-space parking structure in downtown’s central core, 1,400 units of new workforce housing over the next 10 years, and a total overhaul of both Miller Park and Patten Parkway.
“This study looks at what would it take to get the vibrancy and density that’s needed,” White said. “I think in the next three years alone, we could get another 400 units.”