The timing may be right.
As hundreds of new residential rooftops get ready to open in or near downtown Chattanooga’s Southside, a developer is trying to find a retail use for land that historically has been used for manufacturing heavy machinery.
Part of the former Alstom property at Riverfront Parkway and West Main Street could be repurposed to retail space.
“Growth is headed down Main Street,” said Jimmy White, whose development group owns a large tract that formerly held turbine-maker Alstom and then later wind tower company Aerisyn.
White’s group, which markets itself as Urban Story Ventures, has up to eight acres of the industrial site, which could be carved away as retail out-parcels. That property is part of a larger tract it bought in 2015, some of which was leased a few months ago to Techniques Surfaces USA. That company, which coats auto parts, firearms and industrial machinery, is leasing 35,000 square feet in a building on the site.