MIXED-USE BUILDING
* What: 2-story building with commercial on ground floor and apartments above* Where: 1734 Dayton Blvd. in Red Bank* Apartments: Rents are to range from $1,400 to $1,600 monthly* For information: Kelly Fitzgerald (kelly@secondstory.properties)
The first mixed-use, multi-story building to go up on Dayton Boulevard in Red Bank in decades is planned as a developer looks to parlay the site's proximity to the hot North Shore.
The $2.5 million, 15,000-square-foot structure near Signal Mountain Road is slated to hold commercial space on the ground floor and a half dozen apartments on the top level, said Win Pratt, president of Pratt Home Builders.
He said there's a lot of commercial building underway on the nearby North Shore.
"On the north end, all that stuff going up on Frazier Avenue and Cherokee Boulevard, it's right on the north side of that," said Pratt about his parcel. "If you will go a mile further, you'll have a little more competitively priced option."
The vacant tract at 1734 Dayton Blvd. sits next to Pratt Home Builders' new headquarters which it raised a few years ago. The site had held a service station for many years, but that has been torn down and the land environmentally remediated, Pratt said.
Red Bank Mayor John Roberts said the kind of mixed-use building Pratt is planning hasn't been raised on Dayton Boulevard in potentially a century.
"They see a demand or wouldn't be proposing it," he said.
Roberts said residential development continues to grow in Red Bank. That will lead to more commercial, retail and office tenants, he said.
Kelly Fitzgerald of Second Story Properties said she has had several inquiries from potential tenants, but nothing is nailed down yet.
"We'd like to get a couple of good retail tenantsfinancial services, professional services," she said. "Anything like that would be ideal. Maybe even medical."
Fitzgerald said the site will hold about 40 parking spaces.
Pratt said the 7,500 square feet on the ground floor could hold one to four tenants.
"It's a great alternative [to the North Shore]," Pratt said. "Maybe less expensive."
The second level will hold six, two-bedroom apartments with rents ranging from $1,400 to $1,600 a month, he said.
Plans are to start construction this fall with a spring 2019 finish, Pratt said.
In addition to the builder's home office and the planned mixed-use structure, the company finished self-storage buildings on the property last fall. Pratt said the storage space is more than 50 percent occupied.
Roberts said Pratt's company has done "a remarkable job" redeveloping the property that sits just north of the Stringer's Ridge tunnel.
"They're investing more money into our city," he said.
Contact Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6318. Follow him on Twitter @MikePareTFP.