Staff photo by Mike Pare / Trees are harvested to make room at the proposed Hillocks Farm development on Highway 153 in Hixson. New apartments, retail and corporate offices are slated for the project.Hillocks Farm
Planned mixed-use Hixson development off Highway 153 is to hold:› 280 apartments› Up to 500,000 square feet of retail› About 250,000 square feet of corporate officesSource: Development plan
Proposed $100 million Hixson commercial and retail project.One of Chattanooga’s biggest commercial and housing developments is starting to take shape. But it’s been a long time coming.
In the 1980s, a national developer weighed putting a Hamilton Place mall-sized center on the 190-acre wooded site off Highway 153 in Hixson, but later withdrew it. And the roots of the current plan were first planted about five years ago when it drew scathing opposition from some nearby residents.
Finally, land-clearing has begun for the project, dubbed Hillocks Farm. Now valued at well more than $100 million when built out, work is starting on 280 apartments to open late next year with retail and office space slated to follow.
“It has been a challenging site,” said Duane Horton, a Chattanooga builder overseeing development of the tract with landowner Jack Lonas.