Collegedale leads region in growth, building standards [photo gallery]

When J.B. Underwood took over Collegedale Central Exxon 43 years ago at the intersection of Ooltewah-Ringgold and Apison Pike, the Four Corners intersection had only a four-way stop, two-lane roads and the Trading Post diner across from Underwood’s gas station.

“This was a bedroom community with McKee Foods and Southern College,” said Underwood, who initially leased his station from McKee Foods Co., founder O.D. McKee before later buying his station property. “There’s a lot more traffic and commercial development here today, which is great. But there is still a small-town appeal about Collegedale.”

That small-town appeal, combined with the new four-lane Apison Pike connection to Interstate 75 that runs in front of the Collegedale Exxon, have combined to not only grow Underwood’s business but to make his hometown the fastest-growing city in the region.

Collegedale has more than doubled its population since the 2000 census, and the city grew by more than a third, adding 3,555 residents, in just the past six years, according to new estimates by the Bureau of Census.

Among Tennessee’s 100 largest cities, Collegedale is second only to the Nashville suburb of Mount Juliet in its growth rate from 2010 to 2016.

Collegedale grew as Southern Adventist College expanded into a full-scale university, McKee Foods became America’s biggest privately owned bakery and the nearby Enterprise South Industrial Park landed two of the region’s biggest employers – Volkswagen and Amazon, along with suppliers.

“Collegedale has always been a great bedroom community, but we are becoming much more of a commercial and employment center as well,” Collegedale Mayor Katie Lamb said.

Lamb, who has served on the Collegedale City Commission since 2009, came to Collegedale to teach nursing at Southern 45 years ago when the city, true to its name, was a small college town that was home to McKee Baking Co., and only a few thousand year-round residents.

McKee now employs nearly 3,000 workers at its Collegedale headquarters and bakery facilities. Within a 10-minute drive from Collegedale, three of Hamilton County’s other 20 biggest employers – Volkswagen, Amazon and U.S. Xpress Enterprises – collectively employ more than 7,000 full-time workers – and thousands of more seasonal, contract and support workers.

Road to prosperity?

The completion this fall of the expansion of Apison Pike from Interstate 75 to Collegedale’s Four Corners town center has provided a more direct path between Collegedale and the thousands of jobs at Enterprise South. The $24.2 million project widened the roadway between Old Lee Highway and Ooltewah-Ringgold Road from two lanes to five lanes, providing an extra lane for travelers driving in each direction as well as a continuous center turn lane.

The next phase of the state highway project will widen Apison Pike past the headquarters of McKee Foods and Southern Adventist University. Plans are to eventually widen Apison Pike to four lanes all the way to East Brainerd Road.

Chris McKee, a third generation manager at McKee Foods who heads sales and marketing for the Little Debbie bakery, said the company welcomes the Apison Road expansion, which McKee has been pushing the state to complete for decades. But as a lifelong Collegedale resident, McKee sees the rapid growth of his hometown “with mixed emotions.”

“On the one hand, the rural community of my youth is disappearing,” McKee said. “On the other hand, new residents, businesses and amenities add excitement and vigor to the place. The growth is coming, the growth is here, so we might as well embrace it. Things like the road improvement increases safety and access.”

The new road has already spurred the construction of more than 500 apartment units, including the 248-unit Village at Apison and the 286-unit Hawthorne at the Summit, in the past couple of years. Nearby on Little Debbie Parkway, the 5-year-old Integra Hills Apartments with more than 300 one-to-three bedroom units, sold three years ago for $31.7 million.

Developers are studying plans for even more commercial and residential development in the area.

Commons Opening

But Collegedale is trying to avoid the building excesses of suburban sprawl seen in many growing cities by setting aside property for open spaces and creating a new park and gathering area in the growing center of Collegedale. Next to City Hall and the recently upgraded Imagination Station playground, an eight-acre cultural and recreational center known as The Commons is preparing to open.

The new park includes a shaded market area on 30,000 square feet of paved surface covered by 32 oak trees and surrounding a new 25,000-square-foot covered pavilion.

The first phase of the city- and privately-funded complex will celebrate its grand opening at 5 p.m. on Nov. 5 when backers of The Commons participate in a Christmas Tree lighting ceremony. On Nov. 25-26, a Christmas market is also planned othere, and by next spring The Commons will host a regular farmers market and outdoor concerts.

“This is a place where people can come and enjoy family life, where events and entertainment can be offered and where we can have a farmers market for people in this part of the county to buy fresh fruits, vegetables and other items,” said David Barto, the executive director of the Collegedale Tomorrow Foundation which is privately funding $3.1 million of the initial $4.6 million cost of the complex.

Nearby, the city is also planning to erect a 27-foot stone clock tower in front of Collegedale Public Library as a symbol of the emerging new “downtown” of Collegedale. The tower will be largely funded by a cell tower company that will use the clock tower to disguise its cell signaling equipment.

“A lot of old towns have the old courthouse or the old, beautiful church at the center of town, but Collegedale really doesn’t have that” Barto said.

Jayme O’Donnell, secretary treasuer of the Collegedale Tomorrow Foundation, said donors to The Commons want a community facility, farmers market and gathering place in eastern Hamilton County.

“For a city this size to create a complex like this is really extraordinary,” she said.

The Commons is also near the nearly 4-mile Wolftever Creek Greenway in Collegedale and is part of more than 700 acres of green and open space set aside by conservation easements, parks and other open areas in a city of about 12 square miles.

“Just as the Greenway gave us an outlet for personal wellness and recreation, The Commons will provide a platform for the arts and a farmer’s market,” said Chris McKee, one of the donors to the Collegedale Tomorrow Foundation. “None of this could happen without a city government and planning commission that guides development in a way that will benefit all citizens.”

Higher building standards

As the first exit in Hamilton County for southbound motorists on Interstate 75, the Lee Highway exit 11 – just two miles north of the new Apison Pike interchange – also draws thousands of commuters to gas stations, restaurants and hotels in the Collegedale and Ooltewah area.

But the new stores and restaurants being added in Collegedale are not your typical retail storefronts. To help elevate the quality of new development, Collegedale has set the strictest citywide building standards in the region for new construction, requiring more design review from builders, and more brick facades and fewer signs than many of the retail tenants are used to having at other locations.

“The design and landscape standards probably add 10 to 15 percent to the cost of the project, but our tenants are willing to pay because this is such an attractive commercial area right now,” said Bassam Issa, a real estate developer who erected a $5 million center known as Wolftever Crossing last year at Old Lee Highway near the Little Debbie Parkway in Collegedale.

Issa, who has built projects throughout Hamilton County, landed AT&T, Salsaritas restaurant, Firehouse Subs, SuperCuts and an American Family Care walk-in clinic in his Collegedale project.

“This is a great area for growth, and retailers and restaurants want to be in this market,” he said.

The median household income in Collegedale, estimated at $51,587 in 2015 dollars, is 14 percent above Tennessee’s average of $45,219, according to census estimates.

Jeff Londis, a developer who bought the former Ooltewah Elementary School on Lee Highway, is redeveloping the site into the White Oak Crossing commercial development and also supports the stricter building codes and facade requirements in Collegedale.

After opening a new Aldi supermarket on the site a year ago, the next phase of White Oak Crossing should open in the next couple of months with three eateries – Jersey Mike’s, Smoothie King and Dos Bros – along with the Noire Nail Salon, an Advance Financial office and a Synovus mortgage office.

“We also are actively working with a number of retail and commercial prospects about the rest of our property,” he said. “We fully intend to have another building underway by the first quarter of next year.”

Mayor Lamb said the city is trying to make the new buildings add to the look and value of the community, not create eye congestion or pollution.

“People want to enjoy growth not be overwhelmed by it, so we have tried to take the steps to keep this an enjoyable, livable community while still growing and creating more business and job opportunities for our people,” she said.

Contact Dave Flessner at dflessner@timesfree press.com or at 423-757-6340.