Note: This story was updated April 13 to clarify the current ownership and control of Hawk Hill and AT&T Field.
Chattanooga's Joel W. Solomon Federal Building and Courthouse will be replaced at least a couple of blocks from its current 91-year-old site, but the federal agency responsible for building the new and bigger courthouse won't pick the final site in Chattanooga until fall.
The General Services Administration, the federal agency that constructs and maintains most federal buildings, announced this week it narrowed the sites it is considering for building a 190,400-square-foot federal courthouse in Chattanooga to two downtown possibilities, both of which the current users said they won't need for much longer.
The administration said its studies found no adverse environmental impact from building a new courthouse at either the TVA Chattanooga Office Complex at Market and 11th streets or at the AT&T stadium used by the Chattanooga Lookouts atop Hawk Hill near the riverfront. TVA said it no longer needs most of its 1.4 million-square-foot complex, and the Lookouts are planning to relocate to a new stadium on Chattanooga's Southside.
Congress and the General Services Administration have authorized $218 million for the site acquisition, design and construction of a new federal courthouse in Chattanooga to replace the aging building on Georgia Avenue, which no longer meets accessibility and safety standards for federal court facilities.
The new courthouse, which is expected to take several years to design and build, will consist of seven courtrooms, nine chambers and 40 inside secure parking spaces. The facility will also provide space for the district clerk, U.S. Probation Office, bankruptcy clerk, United States Marshals Service, United States Attorney's Office, congressional offices and the General Services Administration.
TVA has offered some or all of its downtown office building site for the new federal courthouse, while River City Co., which owns the land on which the current Chattanooga Lookouts stadium sits, is considering future options for Hawk Hill.
TVA is planning to issue an environmental assessment of its Chattanooga office options in June after conducting a public hearing and receiving more than 100 comments about its plans to downsize its power headquarters facilities in downtown Chattanooga. TVA spokesperson Scott Fiedler said Friday most of the comments received by TVA urged the utility to find another use for its property downtown to replace the cutbacks in TVA's office staff in Chattanooga.
(READ MORE: TVA seeks to sell downtown office complex)
Chattanooga’s Sports Authority now controls the 13-acre Hawk Hill site, but once the Lookouts vacate AT&T Field and relocate to a new stadium planned on Chattanooga's southside, Hawk Hill will revert back to the River City Co.
"Either one of these sites, I think, would be wonderful for a new federal courthouse," former U.S. District Court Judge Harry S. "Sandy" Mattice Jr., said in a telephone interview Friday. "My biggest concern is that the site selection be concluded as soon as possible because the longer this is delayed, the higher the cost of building a new courthouse is likely to become."
The federal agency had previously indicated it might select a site by this month for a new federal courthouse in Chattanooga, which Mattice and other Chattanooga judges have been urging for several decades. The Solomon building was erected in 1932 during the Great Depression and lacks adequate security, size, energy or access under today's federal courthouse standards according to federal assessments.
Once the new federal courthouse is built, the Solomon building is expected to be renovated for continued use as a downtown post office and facility to house other federal agencies, including congressional, IRS and other federal offices that lease facilities elsewhere.
(READ MORE: River City sees input on future use of Hawk Hill)
Staff file Photo / The Tennessee Valley Authority is soliciting proposals to replace its Chattanooga Office Complex at Market and 11th streets. As Chattanooga's biggest office building, the campus spreads over four different complexes and houses 2,400 employees.Site possibilities
In addition to the TVA and Lookouts stadium sites, the federal agency had been considering the parking lot block bounded by Eighth, Lindsay and Houston streets and M.L. King Boulevard. But in an announcement earlier this week, the agency said the hillside lot south of Eighth Street didn't meet its building requirements.
"The two remaining sites have greater potential to be the most advantageous to the government and have been advanced for additional consideration. GSA anticipates a final site selection by fall 2024," Cathy Garber, public affairs officer for the General Services Administration in Atlanta, said in an email.
John K. Clark, who manages and is part of the ownership group for the Eighth Street site that was not selected, said in a telephone interview he was not seeking to sell the property and is fine with keeping that parcel as a downtown parking lot.
Both Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly and Hamilton County Mayor Weston Wamp have endorsed the idea of converting part or all of the TVA office complex into a new federal courthouse building.
"A new federal courthouse has the potential to transform the underused TVA facility into a significant new landmark in our region that will promote public safety while enhancing downtown Chattanooga," Kelly and Wamp wrote Sunday in an opinion piece in the Chattanooga Times Free Press. "It will breathe new life into Chattanooga's downtown business district."
Nearly four decades ago, TVA built four connected offices on more than 8 acres downtown, bounded by West 11th Street on the north, Market Street on the east, West 12th Street on the south and Chestnut Street on the west. When the Chattanooga office complex was built, TVA had more than 50,000 employees, but the staff of the federal utility has since shrunk to about 10,000. TVA also has shifted many of its office employees to remote or hybrid jobs.
TVA projects it will need about half as much office space in Chattanooga for the future and has received several offers to build or lease up to to 600,000 square feet of office space elsewhere downtown, according to Tricia Lynn Roelofs, senior director of facilities transformation at TVA.
In a statement Friday, River City Co. President Emily Mack said she agrees with the mayors that the TVA site "provides many positive attributes to serve as a location for a future federal courthouse."
"A new federal courthouse on a portion of the TVA campus would strengthen the connective fabric of our city center, breathe life into an underutilized space in the heart of our downtown and complement other nearby government buildings and services," Mack said. "We agree that this site provides many positive attributes to serve as a location for a future federal courthouse."
River City has received comments from thousands of residents through a community survey about the future of Hawk Hill, Mack said.
"This feedback, in combination with real estate market data and urban planning principles, is foundational in shaping and developing a framework plan for the site," she said. "We are almost complete with the planning process for the future of Hawk Hill and hope to be able to share more about concepts for the site in the near future."
Contact Dave Flessner at dflessner@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6340.
Staff Photo by Robin Rudd / AT&T Field, home of the Chattanooga Lookouts, sits upon Hawk Hill in this view from a parking garage between Chestnut and Broad streets.