Planned apartment complex near Northgate Mall is newest addition in flurry of area projects

Staff photo by Mike Pare / Dominion Senior Living is building a new independent living facility on Northpoint Boulevard near Northgate Mall. Dominion Group is proposing a 200-unit apartment complex nearby.
Staff photo by Mike Pare / Dominion Senior Living is building a new independent living facility on Northpoint Boulevard near Northgate Mall. Dominion Group is proposing a 200-unit apartment complex nearby.

A 200-unit apartment complex is proposed for a tract near Northgate Mall and is the latest in a flurry of new projects planned in and around the Chattanooga shopping center.

"The area is being revitalized," said Mike Price of MAP Engineers, who's working on the planned apartment complex.

Landowner Ken DeFoor is seeking to rezone a 4-acre vacant parcel at 2767 Northpoint Blvd. just behind the mall's movie theaters.

Dominion Group of Knoxville plans to raise the apartment complex in a development estimated at about $20 million, said Price.

photo Staff photo by Mike Pare / Workers are tearing down the former Firestone auto center near Northgate Mall. Plans are for a new Panera Bread restaurant and two other eateries in a multimillion-dollar project.

He said that about eight three-story buildings holding the garden-style apartments will go on both sides of Northpoint Boulevard by the traffic circle.

"It's a little unique," Price said, adding the work is slated to start in late spring or early summer.

DeFoor wants to rezone the site from manufacturing to residential, according to the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Regional Planning Agency. The Planning Commission is expected to hear the request on Monday, and the staff has recommended approval.

The site also would hold 383 parking spaces, the proposal said.

The apartments would sit near a three-story, 93-unit independent living complex already going up on Northpoint Boulevard that's easily seen from the mall parking lot and developed by a division of Dominion Group.

Dominion Senior Living operates 13 assisted living and memory care communities across Tennessee, South Carolina, and Kentucky, including one nearby in Hixson, and it's launching the new independent living brand at the site.

Meanwhile, on the opposite side of Northgate Mall, work has begun tearing down the former Firestone auto repair location that's visible from Highway 153.

Chattanooga developer Bassam Issa earlier this year bought the old auto center with plans to build a new Panera Bread restaurant and two other eateries in a multimillion-dollar project.

Issa said he purchased the high-profile, three-acre tract from Simon Group. The parcel had long held Firestone until 2017 when the tire and repair shop moved to a new location a couple of miles away off Highway 153.

Issa said plans are to relocate the existing nearby Panera restaurant. The new Panera will be 4,000 square feet in size and offer a drive-through with a projected fall 2020 opening, he said.

"It's a good market," said Issa about Hixson.

Issa also is part of a development group that recently bought the long-vacant J.C. Penney store at Northgate Mall with hopes attracting new retail, office or entertainment uses.

"We're working to get the best fit," said Issa, who is partnering in a joint venture with John Woods, the chief executive officer at asset manager Southport Capital in the city, and mall owner CBL Properties.

Woods, who lives in Atlanta but has other real estate holdings in Chattanooga and an ownership stake in the Chattanooga Lookouts, said there are opportunities as malls transition to so-called lifestyle centers.

"As baby boomers get older, they're more into places which have restaurants, health care, fitness," he said. "They don't want to get in their cars and drive."

Contact Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6318. Follow him on Twitter @MikePareTFP.

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