A proposed new office building on Chattanooga's North Shore is slated to bring Chase bank's first retail branch to the city along with an AFC Urgent Care location.
Matt McGauley, chief executive of Chattanooga-based FTC Development, said the planned 306 Cherokee Blvd. structure will provide 7,000 square feet of ground floor space.
"It's divided into the two spaces," he said in a phone interview, with Chase and AFC splitting the ground floor. "We think it will be a phenomenal benefit to the North Shore community."
The company is seeking a variance for the project at a meeting of the city's Form-Based Code Committee. The company wants a decrease in the building height requirement from two-story minimum to one level on the interior only, according to the panel.
McGauley said the building's exterior is designed as a two-story structure with windows on a second floor and with the ability to add a second tenant in the future.
The developer said the planned JPMorgan Chase & Co. branch is a first for the big bank in the city. He said the branch, which won't have a drive-through, is expected to appeal to business owners and more affluent clients relative to their lending and banking needs.
"It's a little bit more of a white glove banking style," McGauley said.
AFC offers other locations in the Chattanooga market but not downtown, and McGauley said access to the clinic by the North Shore's growing population is a plus.
"The North Shore continues to grow," he said. "People will need these services."
If the proposed new building designed by HK Architects and to be built by Berry Hutton receives approval, work could start in the fall with an opening in spring, he said.
The planned structure is the second phase of Somer Station, which opened early this year and offers co-living and co-working space, a concept pioneered downtown at the Tomorrow Building and Society of Work.
The live-work concept is anchoring the $17 million Somer Station development on 2.5 acres between Cherokee Boulevard and Somerville Avenue.
The owners of the Tomorrow Building, which offers 39 studio apartments downtown at Patten Parkway, also developed the 22 units at Somer Station, said real estate developer Tiffanie Robinson, who launched the concept downtown six years ago, aimed at providing housing to budding entrepreneurs, innovators and others.
Robinson said in an interview that the North Shore studios occupy a new three-story addition that connects to the renovated former Chattanooga Printing & Engraving building.
Somer Station also includes 58 offices, along with conference rooms, open meeting areas, a kitchen, phone booths and shared amenities such as printers, Wi-Fi access and event space.
McGauley said that prior to construction of Somer Station, only a handful of workers were at the location daily. Eventually hundreds will come to the site, he said.
McGauley said there are 90 parking spaces at Somer Station shared by the tenants.
Contact Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6318.