More housing is coming to downtown Chattanooga's hot Southside as a new multifamily building is moving ahead, but a neighbor has expressed dismay that ground-floor commercial space was cut from the project.
Alex Reyland of HK Architects said the nine-unit building is slated for completion this year at East Main and Adams streets and could hold apartments or condominiums.
"It had more interest in residential units," Reyland said in an interview last week after a variance for the project won approval from the city's Form-Based Code Committee in a split vote.
Reyland, representing the developer, said swapping out ground floor commercial space for residential will enable more units in the two-story building that's under construction.
"It will provide housing options," he told the panel.
However, Adams Street resident David Kelman said at the meeting that more commercial space is needed on Main Street.
"It's lacking additional small commercial," he said.
The Main Street area has seen an array of new housing over the past decade, and even more is planned.
Close to Adams Street, a 34-unit townhouse project is on the drawing board off East Main, with the asking price of one residence in the the complex probably hitting $1 million, an official said.
"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, in a telephone interview late last year. The $15 million complex will offer a mix of two- and three-bedroom units, he said.
Closeby, another developer is planning a new apartment complex in a $12.5 million project at 420 E. 16th St. that will hold a four-story, 38-unit building, said Chattanooga developer Kevin Boehm in an earlier phone interview.
Also, several blocks west on East Main, a $25 million, five-story boutique hotel is proposed.
Reyland told the committee that zoning doesn't restrict the Main and Adams structure from becoming all residential space.
But Kelman said the neighborhood didn't oppose the original plan for housing over the ground-floor commercial.
"If we didn't think we'd get commercial, we'd have opposed it," he said. "We need that balance."
Jim Williamson, a panel member, said it appears the developer had a change of heart.
"We are short of housing," he said at the meeting, adding that there's also a need for commercial space on Main.
Panel member Denise Shaw said making the ground floor live-work space would still permit a commercial use.
"You could plug and play as needed depending on who the tenant is," she said.
Contact Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6318.