Downtown businesses and homes generated more property taxes last year than any area in Chattanooga, rising by nearly 39 percent in the past five years.
A new study on the geographic source of city and county property tax collections found that the urban core of Chattanooga produced $17.6 million of property tax revenues within its 510-acre area downtown, or nearly 36 percent more than what came from the region’s biggest suburban commercial area around Hamilton Place mall in East Brainerd, which is nearly three times as big.
In the broader area of downtown served by the River City Co., from the North Shore to Interstate 24 and from the Tennessee River to Central Avenue, downtown properties paid $44.5 million in taxes to city and county governments last year.
Even with tax breaks for some new developments and growth in non-taxed facilities at UTC, TVA and local governments, the central city is still by far the top area for generating local property taxes. With just 0.1 percent of all land in Hamilton County, downtown produces 4.5 percent of all property tax revenues in the county, according to a new economic analysis prepared for River City Co. by the Metro Ideas Project.
River City Co., which commissioned Metro Ideas Project to undertake the study, said the tax collections underscore the value of public investments and tax incentives used downtown.