The Home Depot will locate a 60,800-square-foot warehouse and distribution facility in Chattanooga's new industrial park taking shape in Hixson.
The retail giant has obtained building permits from the city of Chattanooga for a $2.4 million build out of warehouse and office space in the first of four warehouse and industrial buildings planned to be built on the site of the former DuPont nylon plant in Hixson.
The Home Depot is the first tenant to be announced for the North River Commerce Center planned on both sides of Access Road near DuPont Parkway. The Home Depot is planning to use about one third of the 189,000-square-foot building on North Access Road.
Matt Phillips, a partner of Rise Partners, said in an emailed statement the new building housing The Home Depot warehouse is scheduled to be completed later this year.
"Our goal with North River Commerce Center is to provide a place for new businesses to locate in Chattanooga as well as existing businesses to expand their current operations within the market," he said. "This announcement (from The Home Depot) will be the first of many that help us reach our goal for the project."
The North River Commerce Center is an 88-acre development that will bring four new Class A industrial buildings to the Hixson site, each with more than 180,000 square feet of space, plus another 26.4 acres for future development. When fully developed, the industrial park is expected to bring more than $100 million of new investment and add 600 or more jobs, Phillips said.
Contributed Photo / An aerial view shows construction underway for the first building in the North River Commerce Park being built along Access Road on the site of the former parking lot of the DuPont plant in Hixson.The development is being built on property that once housed a nylon production plant and parking lots built by DuPont shortly after World War II to supply the carpet industry and others. The DuPont plant once had more than 5,000 employees and was one of Chattanooga's biggest manufacturing employers.
DuPont ultimately shut down its Hixson plant in 2015 after nearly 60 years of production, although some of the former DuPont facility was sold to Invista and later Kordsa, which continues to operate smaller facilities.
– Compiled by Dave Flessner