A developer is working on wooing a grocery store, restaurants and a fitness center to an area near the proposed new Chattanooga Lookouts stadium.
Development group Multisite Properties has plans to attract a 22,000-square-foot grocery store on Williams Street amid a large apartment and townhouse project now underway on a site bordered by Broad and West 33rd streets, said Steve Bovell, a principal with the Chattanooga company.
No grocer has signed a lease, but Bovell said Tuesday in a telephone interview that he believes the market would support it.
"The people we're talking with are different than Publix and Food City," he said, noting both those chains already have stores nearby. "We think it would be a complement to the neighborhood."
A zoning change is being sought in October from the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Regional Planning Commission to accommodate the proposed commercial space.
Plans also show about 15,000 square feet of restaurant space at Broad and 33rd streets, just a few blocks from the location of the multiuse Lookouts stadium on the old U.S. Pipe/Wheland Foundry site that's already won approval from city and county government.
A second floor above the eateries is to hold 16 apartments, according to plans. A 15,000-square-foot fitness center also is proposed off Williams Street, plans show.
Bovell said the South Broad corridor is seeing a lot of activity.
"With the ballpark it's even getting more attention," he said. Bovell said retailers that may not have considered the area two or three ago now see it as a potential location for their businesses.
He said he believes work will start on the commercial sites after the start of the new year.
Already, hundreds of new housing units are going up on the adjacent site.
Joe Fielden Jr. of general contractor J.A. Fielden Co. of Knoxville said in an email that plans are on track for the apartments to open for occupancy early next year. He said the development's clubhouse should be ready this fall.
The site, which is across 33rd street from WDEF-TV, manufacturer Sanofi and Chattanooga Christian School, for many years had held warehouse space, vacant tracts and an old hotel.
Nearby on the foundry property, groundbreaking for the $79.4 million Lookouts stadium could take place in April, officials said last week.
Brent Goldberg, the city's chief financial officer, said at the first meeting of the new Chattanooga- Hamilton County Sports Authority that the time frame for breaking ground would allow for a planned April 2025 opening for the ballpark, where the Lookouts owners would like to start the team's minor league baseball season that year.
Goldberg told the panel that plans are to issue up to $80 million in bonds by the end of December to fund construction of the facility.
Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly said at the meeting that the stadium and other development in the area would begin a transformation of the city's western gateway.
He said that a master developer is moving "full steam ahead in creating a site plan that will turn the South Broad District into one of the most epic beautiful riverfront developments in the country."
Contact Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6318. Follow him on Twitter @MikePareTFP.