Food City was welcomed to the neighborhood on Thursday by a downtown Chattanooga design panel as a plan to build a supermarket, townhomes and other commercial space won approval.
“We look forward to this project and we’ll continue to listen and move this project forward,” said Stephen D. Spangler, vice president for real estate and site development for Food City parent K-VA-T Food Stores Inc.
The city’s Form-Based Code Committee endorsed five proposed variances sought by Food City relating to parking, driveways and medians at the planned site of the more than $15 million project on downtown’s Southside.
Issues such as signage and lighting are expected to be taken up later with the city concerning the parcel bounded by Broad, Main, 13th streets and a greenway where Carter Distributing Co. operated for many years before closing its facilities there.
No one spoke against the project, which calls for a 50,000-square-foot grocery store. Also, six two-story townhomes will go on 13th Street with that look carrying onto Broad Street and wrap the store. On Broad, plans are to have about 16,000 square feet of retail, office or apartment space, according to the Virginia-based grocer.