Work is underway on a new town center for East Ridge, where city officials held a groundbreaking ceremony for the future complex.
Located behind East Ridge City Hall, the town center complex will serve as a multipurpose event venue.
“It’s versatile space for hosting a variety of community events such as dinners, banquets, luncheons, birthday parties, business meetings, city events,” City Manager Scott Miller said Friday at the ceremony.
Designed by Chattanooga’s HK Architects, the 12,000-square-foot facility includes a catering kitchen, meeting rooms, bride and groom rooms for weddings, and storage and office space, Miller said.
It also features 7,000 square feet of open-air entertaining space, and three garage-style glass doors on the north and south sides of the building can be raised to allow people to walk in and out during events such as farmers markets, he said.
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Council member David Tyler said after the ceremony that he is excited for the additional event space the town center will provide for the city.
“I’m with a lot of local civic organizations, and we’re always trying to hunt down new places to do things or have meetings or have events, so this will be really big for us,” Tyler said. “I have family from out of town who come and visit, and we’re always trying to figure out where we want to go for Thanksgiving. It’ll be very nice to have this in the list of the possibilities.”
The project should take about a year, he said.
Miller said at a September council meeting the city budgeted up to $6 million for the project.
Last November, he recommended the city pay for the town center and improvements to facilities at Camp Jordan with funds generated by a $7.9 million bond issue.
Because the town center is an economic development project within a certified border region under Tennessee’s Border Region Retail Tourism Development District Act, the city can submit the cost to the state for reimbursement with a portion of state sales tax, Tyler said.
Contact Emily Crisman at ecrisman@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6508.