With Chattanooga’s biggest industrial park beginning to fill up, Chattanooga officials are seeking to clean up another 40 acres that once housed the main chemical plant for the former Volunteer Army Ammunitions Plant (VAAP) to open up more land for new industrial development.
The Chattanooga Industrial Development Board Monday agreed to provide $500,000 collected from its share of tax payments and fees paid on other projects to help provide the local match for a $4.5 million site remediation and preparation project.
Through the Southeast Tennessee Development District, the city of Chattanooga has applied for a $2.5 million grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration to match city, county and IDB contributions to pay for one of the last environmental cleanup projects at the former TNT production plant, which is now part of the Enterprise South Industrial Park.
“This is really the last cleanup that we have (at VAAP),” said Cherita Allen, deputy director for the city’s Department of Economic and Community Development. “We have marketed this site in the past to companies that are interested in sites that size, but clearly it does not show well. What we would like to do is to apply for this matching grant. … and clean up and prepare this property.”
Final VAAP cleanup
The proposed $4.5 million cleanup would prepare 40 acres for redevelopment and be funded by:* $2.5 million federal EDA grant* $1.25 million from Hamilton County government* $750,000 from the city of Chattanooga* $500,000 for collected fees from the Industrial Development Board of Chattanooga