Work on a new East Brainerd grocery store and other retail space could start late this year as part of a $100 million retail and residential project endorsed Monday by Hamilton County planners.
The city council still must sign off on plans to finish the long-delayed Waterside lifestyle center off Shallowford and Gunbarrel roads, adding some 350,000 square feet of retail space, 20,000 square feet of restaurants and up to 300 apartments.
But developers are confident that project changes will overcome traffic and other worries expressed to the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Regional Planning Commission.
“It’s a good opportunity to go forward,” said Chattanooga developer Ken Defoor, whose Defoor Brothers Development is teaming with Branch Properties LLC of Atlanta.
He said that developing Waterside has been “quite an ordeal,” with new retail drying up during the Great Recession. But Defoor said a national developer can now give the project “the ignition it needs.”