A Chattanooga hotel developer will ask to rezone an East Ridge tract on Monday to build a TownePlace Suites by Marriott and a indoor water park in a $27 million project.
"It has great visibility off the interchange," said Roshan Amin, chief executive officer of the Dynamic Group, about the parcel near Interstate-75.
The project would go up on a 5-acre site at Ringgold Road and Frawley Road, just east of I-75, he said.
Amin said the 104-room hotel and 25,000-square-foot water park would benefit from sports tournaments and events at nearby Camp Jordan as the Bass Pro Shops store.
"We are extremely excited to create a new destination and experience for residents and visitors to the Chattanooga area," he said about the hotel and water park project that's a joint venture between Dynamic Group and sister company Atlas Land Development.
Amin said the four-story hotel and 50-foot-high water park will be detached from one another. People interested in using the water park won't have to stay in the hotel, he said.
"I think the water park will appeal to people who live in Southeast Tennessee, North Alabama and North Georgia, including families visiting Camp Jordan, as well as tourists visiting Chattanooga or families traveling on I-75 or I-24 to and from Florida," he said.
One of Dynamic Group's investors has been working on the water park concept for eight years, Amin said.
He cited a small indoor water park at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga that stays busy.
"We see the demand," Amin said, adding that his group's water park will have a tower with slides, a "lazy river," and a wave pool. Also, he said, it will have a small child's pool, a mezzanine deck for party rooms, an arcade and food and beverages.
East Ridge residents would receive a discount for non-hotel guest water park admission, said Amin.
The site will have three entrances and exits from Frawley Road and Ringgold Road to reduce traffic concerns, he said.
If the project receives approval from the East Ridge Planning Commission, work could start next May on the hotel and take about a year to build. The water park will take a little longer to construct and open in late 2020, Amin said.
Amin said the developers also like that the site sits in East Ridge's Border Region District. That 940-acre district around Exit One and Ringgold Road is designed to encourage commercial development by offering incentives to builders.
Most recently, East Ridge officials acted to permit the Birmingham, Alabama-based restaurant chain Jack's Family Restaurant to take advantage of the district business incentive if it opens a new eatery at 4209 Ringgold Road.
The incentive awarded by East Ridge would provide the restaurant company up to $600,000 over 20 years based on the sales and property taxes the restaurant expects to generate, said Jim Avery, director of development for the company.
Amin said plans are to request the incentive, but it hasn't done so yet.
"We think the project will stand on its own merit," he said.
The hotel will be the fourth developed by Dynamic Group in the Chattanooga area. Others include Holiday Inn & Suites in downtown Chattanooga, TownePlace Suites in Cleveland, Tennessee, and Staybridge Suites at Hamilton Place.
Contact Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6318. Follow him on Twitter @MikePareTFP.