Developers who have adapted historic buildings in Chattanooga and Cleveland, Tennessee, for modern uses have each been awarded $300,000 in state grants under a new $4.8 million program established by state lawmakers earlier this year to encourage the preservation and continued use of such properties.
One is the 92-year-old former “Industrial YMCA Building” off East Main Street in Chattanooga, which reopened in February as Common House Chattanooga, a social club with a restaurant and hotel rooms, following extensive renovations.
The other is the old Sanda Hosiery Mills site in Cleveland, where a developer is transforming the 59,692-square-foot mill into space for 52 loft apartments, nearly doubling downtown Cleveland’s apartments.
After passage of the legislation earlier this year, officials from the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development partnered to assemble the program that aims to renovate and preserve historic but idled buildings, allowing them to contribute to the economy through job creation and commercial activity.
All told, 26 projects were approved across the state with an estimated $4 million in tax dollars awarded so far to businesses, developers, nonprofits or local governments.