A new city panel on Wednesday recommended approval of a draft agreement to extend M.L. King Boulevard to Chattanooga’s riverfront using a $4.5 million tax-increment financing plan.
The proposal would spur an estimated $40 million mixed-use development at M.L. King and Riverfront Parkway including 180 apartments, 20 percent of which would be set aside for “workforce housing,” officials said.
The recommendation by the new TIF Application Review Committee now sends the proposed agreement between the city and Nashville developer Evergreen Real Estate to Chattanooga’s Industrial Development Board. Evergreen is the developer of the Cameron Harbor project, and the new apartments will be part of its next phase.
Next Tuesday, the Industrial Development Board is slated to check out the agreement and an economic development overview and determine if the project should go before the city council later next month for its final approval.
Charita Allen, the city’s deputy administrator for economic development, said that in addition to extending M.L. King to the riverfront and tying into the Riverwalk, the plan would spur the apartments and some housing at “a workforce rate.”