One of the biggest new condominium projects yet on Chattanooga's redeveloping East Main Street corridor is planned for a 100-year-old former mattress factory.
The proposed Factory Lofts will go at South Holtzclaw Avenue and East 13th Street and hold 56 condos in an $8 million reuse of the two-story brick building, said Cardon Smith, a vice president for the Fletcher Bright Co.
"There's a ton going on" in that area, said Smith, listing projects which are underway in the rapidly changing part of the city just east of downtown.
He said the location is where Highland Park and downtown's Southside converge, and it's on a proposed seven-mile-long urban trail that would link 10 neighborhoods and potentially rival the city's Riverwalk.
Smith said the condos, 42 of which will be one-bedroom, one-bath units with lofts, would range in size from 730 square feet to 1,030 square feet. Another 14 units are one-bedroom, two-bath condos with lofts.
Sale prices would start at $185,000 and go to $225,000, Smith said. Nine units already are reserved, he said.
Work is to start in November at the 46,000-square-foot structure with construction taking about a year, Smith said.
Wes Mohney, a Fletcher Bright Co. project manager, said the Montague Park Sculpture Field is near Factory Lofts.
Next door is Stove Works, a nonprofit artist-in-residency program supported by private businesses that's underway in a similar, red-brick building, he said.
Staff photo by Troy Stolt / The old mattress warehouse located at 1265 E. 13th St, where Fletcher Bright plans to build loft style condominiums is seen on Thursday, Aug. 13, 2020 in Chattanooga, Tenn.
On the opposite side of Factory Lofts is the National Cemetery, said Smith, noting that property won't be disturbed.
He said Factory Lofts, which will sit on a 1.5-acre site, will have a pool and parking for residents.
Trace Walker, the project's listing agent, said the development will be one of the first in the area to have amenities such as a pool and deck. He expects the units to be popular among people in the 28- to 35-year-old age range.
"Interest rates are as low as they'll be in a while," Walker said, adding that the inventory of that residential product is low in Chattanooga.
Smith said he thinks Factory Lofts will appeal to professionals who want close access to downtown or the hospitals, or those who want live-work space.
Some of the units will have 14-foot ceilings in the former Mid-South Mattress building, he said. While new windows will replace the existing ones, they'll go into the six-foot-tall openings which are currently in the structure, Smith said.
East Main is seeing an array of new and planned housing and commercial space from Central Avenue to Missionary Ridge.
The biggest is a planned $120 million housing and commercial project called Mill Town aimed at vastly remaking a 30-acre tract that formerly held the Standard-Coosa-Thatcher textile plant.
Just down South Holtzclaw from Factory Lofts, Chattanooga businessman Sean Compton has proposed a new mixed-use project in a potential $20 million development at the former Lucey Boiler industrial site.
Also, prep work has started on a proposed $30 million retail and housing development near Montague Park at 1040 E. Main St. It would hold from 50 to 60 townhomes or condominiums as well as 20,000-square-feet of retail space, said Chattanooga developer Kevin Boehm.
In addition, a Nashville developer has begun work on $40 million in new residential and retail space at 1601 Holtzclaw Ave. that formerly held a Rock-Tenn facility.
Contact Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @MikePareTFP.
Rendering by Hefferlin + Kronenberg Architects / Factory Lofts will hold 56 condominiums in a revamped century-old former mattress factory.