The first steel beams for the Chattanooga Lookouts’ new ballpark are slated to go up later this month as the South Broad District site undergoes rapid change, officials said Thursday.
City Engineer Bill Payne said the steel will support a future structure along the third base line.
Plans are to continue to erect steel around what will become the home plate area for the $115 million facility that’s to open in early 2026, said Payne at a meeting of the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Sports Authority.
“It keeps us moving,” said Payne about the work.
Also, he said, 96 truckloads of so-called “special waste” has been hauled from the old foundry property to date to a landfill in the area to handle such materials.
Payne said that’s “a very small portion” of the soil that was moved.
Stadium financing
— $80 million: Sales of taxable and tax-exempt bonds to be paid back mostly by new city and county tax revenue
— $26 million: Private loans obtained by the Lookouts and landowner, paid back with new city property tax revenue in a 470-acre tax district around the stadium
— $5 million: Sports authority debt, repaid from the city’s property tax revenue and potentially hotel-motel taxes or local sales taxes
— $3 million: Up-front contribution from the Lookouts along with $1 million interest earnings on the bonds
— $1 million: Minimum Lookouts will pay annually in rent
(READ MORE: Chattanooga Lookouts stadium groundbreaking draws hundreds)
Andy Stone, a member of the ownership group for the Wheland Foundry/U.S. Pipe site where the facility will sit, said the third base structure will hold seating, suites and concourse.
“It’s going very well,” he said about the status of construction of the publicly and privately financed ballpark that will replace the Lookouts’ aging home of AT&T Field near downtown’s riverfront.
In addition, Stone said he is surprised that more soil didn’t have to be hauled away to the special waste landfill. He said the early assumption was 10%, but it’s only been 2%.
The new multiuse stadium is expected to serve as the linchpin in upwards of $1 billion in potential new development in the area, officials have said.
The facility will seat from 6,000 to 7,000 people, with the Lookouts ballpark taking nearly 10 acres on the 140-acre old foundry parcel.
Stone said the stadium’s playing surface will sit about 10 to 12 feet below grade, depending on the slope of the ball field that’s adjacent to Interstate 24. That will make it easier for patrons to access the stadium and enable use of nearby renovated foundry structures into the ballpark’s design.
The old foundry parcel has sat largely unused since the closing of manufacturing operations decades ago.
Contact Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6318.