A 34-unit townhouse project is planned on Chattanooga's Southside, with the asking price of one residence in the East Main Street complex probably hitting $1 million, an official said Wednesday.
"Even with interest rates up, there's still a tremendous housing shortage," said Chris Henegar, owner of Henegar Homes, which is developing the three-story townhouses at 711 E. Main St.
The $15 million complex not far from Central Avenue would offer a mix of two- and three-bedroom units, he said in a telephone interview.
The likely $1 million townhouse would be larger than the rest and include a lot of outdoor space, Henegar said. He said the remainder of the residences probably will start in the mid- to upper-$300,000 range.
The developer, whose proposed project is seeking a variance on Thursday from the city's Form-Based Code Committee, said work is expected to begin late this year on the complex if it receives the needed approval. The townhomes will open late next year or early 2024, he said.
According to documents filed with the panel, the project will sit on a 1.38-acre tract at East Main and Madison streets. It will hold 53 parking spaces, documents show.
Henegar said the parcel formerly held a building that housed the T.U. Parks Construction Co. for many years before that company moved.
"It's kind of the last little piece on that section of the Southside that's connected to where restaurants are," he said.
Henegar said the Southside is "one of, if not the most, desirable places in Chattanooga right now."
Already, the Southside has seen an array of new development in recent years and more is on the drawing board.
A few blocks away, a developer is planning a new apartment complex and proposing to reuse nearby shotgun houses dating to the city's foundry era for added retail space, offices or rental dwellings.
That $12.5 million project at 420 E. 16th St. would hold a four-story, 38-unit apartment building, Chattanooga developer Kevin Boehm said in an earlier phone interview.
Several blocks west on East Main, a $25 million, five-story boutique hotel is proposed.
The 90-room hotel is planned for East Main and Mitchell Avenue, said Stephen Wendell of Mountain Shore Properties of Charleston, South Carolina, one of the developers of the tract, in an interview.
Near the corner of East Main and Central Avenue and close to Henegar's project, Chattanooga developer Ethan Collier recently put up about 20 townhomes. He said earlier by phone that the proximity to downtown is helping drive the new development.
"Main Street has a real sense of place -- a unique character and feel to it," Collier said.
Just across Central, a California investor this summer purchased a new apartment complex that opened earlier in the year for $6.1 million.
The four-story East Line apartment complex was built by developer Thomas Connolly, who bought the corner lot in 2019 and later erected the 36-unit facility.
Contact Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6318. Follow him on Twitter @MikePareTFP.