Contributed photo New cottage homes, apartments and townhouses are going up at Cameron Harbor on Chattanooga’s downtown waterfront. One of the project’s developers also is looking at putting in new condominiums.
The BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee gold building at 801 Pine St., has been purchased by developers Ken and Byron DeFoor for $6.15 million.
Staff photo by Dan Henry/Chattanooga Times Free PressDowntown development
In the next two years, developers are planning to add to central city: * 1,500 new apartments * 1,331 more beds for UTC students * 526 hotel rooms * $400 million of new private investment Source: River City Co.
Downtown developers are building or planning a record $400 million of new projects in Chattanooga’s urban core that could more than double the housing stock in the central city and add hundreds more hotel rooms and dozens more stores and restaurants in the coming decade, the head of Chattanooga’s downtown development agency said today.
In a speech to the Downtown Rotary Club, River City Co. President Kim White said the investments are building on the success of earlier riverfront, business and tourism attractions in the central city and reflect the growing interest among residents wanting to live downtown.
“For 30 years, we’ve focused on building a vibrant downtown,” White told Rotarians today. “Now we are in the process of filling in many of the gaps with people who not only want to work and play downtown but live downtown as well.”
The new projects include a $53 million plan by developer Ken Defoor to turn the former headquarters of BlueCross and BlueShield of Tennessee on Pine Street into a luxuryWestin hotel and nearly $100 million of residential development from new apartments, condominiums and single-family homes in Cameron Harbor along Riverfront Parkway.