Just beyond where West M.L. King Boulevard terminates at Riverfront Parkway, five blocks of historically industrial land are ready to be transformed in the initial phase of a 28-block project.
The blocks are bordered by new streets built by the developers of The Bend, a 120-acre planned riverfront retail and tourism district at the former site of Combustion Engineering and, later, Alstom.
Developers are interested in each of the blocks and could bring between $400 million and $500 million of potential development to the north phase of The Bend, where Chattanooga-based Urban Story Ventures has led a $15 million infrastructure investment.
“When I say infrastructure, you’re talking about the biggest, baddest infrastructure that you would see,” Jimmy White, president of Urban Story Ventures and managing partner of The Bend, said on a tour of the site. “These pipes are big enough to drive a Volvo through. This is downtown infrastructure. This is not infrastructure for a subdivision.”
Canal, 10th and 11th streets will be home to mixed-use developments clustered in dense formations similar to what a visitor to a Florida beach town may see, White said. Urban Story Ventures and a related entity working on infrastructure are planning a marina, an amphitheater, affordable housing, office towers and park space.