New retail and restaurant space along with apartments are planned for a site near the intersection of McCallie and Central avenues, where two other residential projects were unveiled earlier this year.
"It's hot," said Chattanooga architect Pat Neuhoff, president of Neuhoff Taylor Architects, about the intersection that's close to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and the Fort Wood neighborhood.
Neuhoff, who is overseeing the mixed-use project at 1008 McCallie Ave. for the planned building owner, said in an interview Thursday that the location has a lot of walkability.
The two-story building is to hold more than 18,400 square feet with commercial space on the bottom and apartments above it, he said. Neuhoff said it's uncertain at this time how many apartments will go in the top-floor space.
He said that one business, called Smoothie, already has been identified for the site. Also, a liquor store is planned for another space, the architect said.
Plans shown to the city's Form-Based Code Committee, which approved a variance for the project on Thursday, indicate that the tract will hold about 20 parking spaces. Also, five off-site parking spots are available from an adjacent existing convenience store at the intersection. Neuhoff said the planned building's owners also run the convenience store.
He said the restaurant will have a drive-thru.
Across McCallie from the project, a 55-unit townhouse development is planned by locally based RP Homes.
Kaitlin Sims, a civil engineer for the firm LaBella Associates, said at an earlier meeting of the city panel that the townhouse project is "improving the McCallie Avenue corridor."
That vacant lot was at one time pegged to hold student housing for UTC. In 2017, a Roanoke, Virginia, company proposed building a 456-bed, $38 million apartment building.
Wes Bradley, president of University Housing Group, said by phone at the time that the student housing market in the area was under-served. But the housing was never built.
Also at the McCallie-Central intersection, a new three-story apartment complex holding 27 or 28 apartments is planned, said Lauren Dunn, an architect at Chattanooga-based Franklin Architects, in a phone call earlier this summer.
Most of that apartment complex will hold two- or three-bedroom units, although a few with one bedroom are proposed in the development that's estimated at about $3.5 million, Dunn said.
Contact Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6318. Follow him on Twitter @MikePareTFP.