A Chattanooga panel on Thursday gave approval for a South Carolina development group to put up a pair of 5-story apartment buildings on a tract off Manufacturers Road.
Approval came despite opposition from residents of the adjacent One North Shore condominium complex, who complained that one of the proposed buildings would be too high for Manufacturers Road and block views from their structure.
"Our's is four stories in front," said Buck Tasker, president of the condominium's homeowners association, to the city's Form-Based Code Committee. "We think the [four-story] height is good."
The proposed apartment complex by Middle Street Partners of Charleston, South Carolina, would go on a vacant tract at 430 Manufacturers Road.
It's the same site where a $30 million assisted living facility was planned in 2019, but nothing was ever constructed. For many years, the tract was owned by Chattanooga developer Allen Casey.
On Thursday, a plan at the meeting showed 250 apartments in the proposed complex. But Allen Jones of ASA Engineering & Consulting, representing the developer, said the exact number of apartments is uncertain.
He said the apartment's location on the North Shore is why the development group likes the project.
"It's a happening place," Jones said.
He said a road system is planned into the site. Jones said the apartments are near the Tennessee River but would not sit on the waterfront.
He said work on the complex could start next year. The development group didn't have any price points for the apartments.
The committee noted that it had in 2019 endorsed a request by the assisted living group to go from four to five stories.
"These are apartments rather than assisted living," said Jim Williamson, the panel's chairman.
In 2019, a different group proposed a five-story structure with 136 assisted living units and another 15 memory care rooms. That 29,700-square-foot building would have sat near One North Shore and across Manufacturers Road from the Two North Shore office and retail development that holds Whole Foods, Rock/Creek and other stores.
In 2014, the parcel had become embroiled in a bankruptcy court case involving Casey, the late developer of Chattanooga Choo Choo.
The tract then was part of an 11-acre parcel sitting on a key spot nearly directly across the river from the Tennessee Aquarium.
Contact Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6318. Follow him on Twitter @MikePareTFP.