A delayed project to build an apartment complex and office building by the new Chattanooga Lookouts stadium will soon cost taxpayers, Hamilton County Attorney Janie Varnell told developers in a letter.
Varnell requested updates and a legal justification for the delay from the master developer and landowner of the former U.S. Pipe/Wheland Foundry site in the letter, sent on Thursday and obtained by the Chattanooga Times Free Press.
The 140-acre post-industrial site is now home to Erlanger Park, set to open in April, and the public debt issued by the city and county to build the $115 million stadium is meant to be paid back with new tax revenue from surrounding development.
The first phase of private development, which borders the outfield, is supposed to contribute $880,000 of new property tax revenue to help pay off the debt, Varnell said in the letter.
The project has not gone under construction yet despite the site’s developer, Jim Irwin of Atlanta-based New City Properties, originally estimating construction would begin in 2024.