Douglas Heights is a new UTC dorm across M.L. King Boulevard from the university.DOWNTOWN HOUSING DEMANDCurrent demand: 2,415 additional rental units, including 1,641 suitable for millennials and college studentsTotal annual demand: 665 to 905 new units, including:* Single-family and townhomes: 125 to 195* Condo units: 40 to 60* Rental units: 250 to 350* Student housing: 250 to 350Source: River City Co.DOUGLAS HEIGHTS BY THE NUMBERSStories: 7Square feet: 275,000 in first phaseBeds: 691 in first phase, 1,500 totalUnits: 195 in first phaseTarget rent: $650 per month, per bedStyle: Suite-style living, with individual bedrooms and a shared living and kitchen areaLocation: First phase will occupy the block between Douglas Street and University Street south of M.L. King Boulevard; phase two will expand to the lot west of Douglas Street, phase three will expand south of 10th street to former TVA site.First phase completion date: August 2016Owner: Riverside Development; president Chris CurtisSource: Riverside Development
In the gut of Chattanooga’s downtown lies a barren patchwork of blighted property guarded by rusting razor wire, standing in open defiance of the growing prosperity surrounding it.
Located just south of M.L. King Boulevard — at one time the soul of Chattanooga’s thriving blues community — the site has been the focus of a handful of renewal plans, each of which disintegrated as landowners chose instead to wait each other out.
But the wait could finally be over as an ambitious promise to build seven stories of private student housing, nearly 700 units in all, begins to take shape Monday.
The 275,000-square-foot Douglas Heights complex in its first phase will occupy nearly an entire city block between Douglas Street and University Street, and at an estimated $40 million price tag will mark the historic district’s most expansive project in decades.