In case you haven’t noticed, residential units can’t be built fast enough across Hamilton County. Take a drive from East Brainerd to Lookout Valley or Hixson to East Ridge, and it seems there is a construction project within view of nearly every intersection along the way.
That’s a good thing because as the area grows, we need as many housing opportunities as possible. Helping alleviate that residential gap is Chamber member Curbed Construction, a general contracting outfit led by Nolan Woody, Thomas Connolly, and Gary Crowe.
Founded in 2021, Curbed tackles all sorts of projects in their sweet spot of the $1 million to $15 million range. Pretty much, you name it, they’ll build it. But the leadership team, all longtime Chattanoogans, appreciates the fact that their collective skills and expertise give them an opportunity to help their clients alleviate a widespread Chattanooga growing pain. Curbed has carved out a niche in constructing multi-unit housing projects in the Chattanooga and Knoxville areas.
“We’ve got more heads than beds at the moment,” says Connolly, as he recounts a telling stat. “A number we keep hearing is that Hamilton County has to develop something like 15,000 lots in the next few years to fully accommodate regional growth patterns. We want to be a high-quality and transparent partner for any investor or developer looking to help add to Chattanooga’s housing stock.”
To meet that need head-on, Curbed leverages the experience of each partner. Connolly has a background in urban infill and hospitality development, but he spends most of his time working through spreadsheets to ensure all the various Curbed projects are moving along as efficiently as possible. Crowe brings more than 20 years of real estate experience to the team and a knack for forging new partnerships thanks to his limitless positive energy. And then there’s Nolan Woody, operating partner, who, at 32, is a true rising star in the industry with a resumé that includes both residential and commercial projects.
“In each of our previous experiences, we consistently found ourselves in need of a greater amount of dependable general contractors,” says Woody. “We’d all collaborated with one another in various capacities over the years, and as we talked, we realized we experienced the same need–and that together, we had the solution to that shared problem. It just made sense to join forces.”
Curbed’s fingerprints are already well-defined across Chattanooga with completed jobs from Missionary Ridge to North Chattanooga and St. Elmo to Main Street.
“At Curbed, our construction portfolio is very broad, though I really think our efforts in the residential space will help our clients keep Chattanooga’s cost of living competitive, encouraging more people and businesses to relocate here,” says Connolly.
A good example of their high-quality, budget-friendly work is a current project in Lookout Valley called The Outpost, which is developed by Connolly and Crowe and constructed by Curbed. When complete, The Outpost will consist of 24 townhomes starting below the $325,000 threshold roughly 10 minutes from downtown Chattanooga.
“I really think The Outpost is a perfect blend of what many Chattanoogans, current and future, look for,” says Crowe. “Convenient to town, located in the midst of the area’s natural beauty, and full of modern amenities at a price point that will steal people away from bigger cities.”
Casting an eye to the future, the Curbed team aims to fill as many different types of construction gaps across Chattanooga as possible. Commercial, industrial, and residential, the Scenic City will have no shortage of building needs in the years to come–and Curbed will be ready to fill all those voids.