A 2,200-acre tract of land, linked to a recently settled legal battle involving the first tax-increment financing deal in Hamilton County, is for sale along with an adjacent golf course.
The 18-hole Black Creek golf course in Lookout Valley is on the market for $2.5 million, and the 2,200 acres nearby on Aetna Mountain is for sale for $9.9 million, said Steven Ekovich, managing director of Leisure Investment Properties Group in Tampa, Fla.
Also, another 187 developable lots are on the block for $4.46 million, he said.
A road that has been the subject of controversy is seen in the Black Creek Mountain development Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2015, in Chattanooga, Tenn.All told, the entire offering can be had for $16.56 million, Ekovich said.
The property, known as the Black Creek development, has been on the market for only a couple of days and interest is high, he said.
"We've had more than 1,000 email hits," Ekovich said, including one from England.
"Black Creek has got such a good location," he said, noting it's only about eight minutes from downtown Chattanooga.
Ekovich said that 31 lots have been sold in the last six months.
Chattanooga businessman Doug Stein, one of the property owners, said that home sales at the development and membership at the golf course is "really strong."
"The Chattanooga market looks good," he said, adding that a New York partner in the ownership group wanted to explore opportunities to sell the site. "We'll see what happens."
Stein said the tax financing plan to build a road up the mountain would go with a potential land sale. Last month, a proposed court settlement was reached in long-running court battles over the $9 million tax increment financing (TIF) plan under which the city will use additional tax revenues generated in the project to repay the costs of the road up the mountain to the development.
"Any transaction that results from any sale would be subject to and consistent with all TIF-related rights and obligations with the city of Chattanooga, Hamilton County, and the Industrial Development Board of Chattanooga," he said in an email.
Helen Burns Sharp, a retired city planner, sued the city's IDB over the TIF financing for the road up Aetna Mountain. Sharp's lawsuits claimed the IDB met secretly in 2012 and again in 2014 - after Sharp won her first lawsuit - before the panel approved and then reapproved the Black Creek TIF.
The city agreed to pay Sharp $22,500 to settle the lawsuits.
Stein said last month that about $980,000 of the TIF money has been spent. He said the TIF funds come from bond purchasers. The rest of the $9 million has been authorized, but the bonds still have to be sold, Stein said.
He said that part of the road to go up the mountain has been built, and some of the land in the TIF area has been developed.
"Very little money has been spent on road infrastructure," he said. "Most of it was spent on engineering and some lawyers."
Stein said the marketing of Black Creek is unrelated to the recently settled suits.
"We informed all members and residents of Black Creek about the potential sale in a meeting about a month ago," he said.
When the TIF was under discussion in 2012, Stein said the project could yield as many as 1,200 to 1,300 homes.
Property owners said the project could be a $500 million development, if fully developed. Plans called for a 150,000-square-foot office park, an assisted living facility, a resort lodge, a 20,000-square-foot corporate retreat and a 30,000-square-foot mixed-use town center and restaurants.
Developers said they planned to set aside as much as 50 acres for a possible school.
Contact Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6318.