Just west of Chattanooga atop Aetna Mountain, site work is beginning on what could grow into the biggest mountaintop residential development ever built in Tennessee.
Thunder Enterprises, which acquired nearly 7,400 acres of Aetna Mountain near the former Hales Bar Dam through a series of property purchases last year, is building a 1.6-mile road to the top of Aetna Mountain to open up the ridgetop property for what developers expect will ultimately bring more than $1.5 billion of homes and mountaintop amenities to eastern Marion County.
John Thornton, the owner of Thunder Enterprises, said he expects Aetna Mountain to double the amount of the investment in Jasper Highlands, a similar mountaintop gated community that Thornton developed over the past decade just 9 miles further west along Interstate 24.
"Jasper Highlands has been a tremendous project, but this could easily be double that investment," Thornton said in a recent interview about his latest project. "It's a beautiful piece of property with 23 miles on the brow, with three-fourths of the brow lots looking down on the Tennessee River Gorge. We couldn't be more excited to be kicking this project off."
The location and expanse of the development helped produce its new name - River Gorge Ranch.
The East Tennessee site of Thornton's latest development is nearly 2,000 miles from the Crescent H ranch at the Grand Teton mountains in Wyoming that Thornton developed 25 years ago. But Thornton said Aetna Mountain will offer the open spaces of a ranch with views of the Tennessee River gorge and other mountains all around it.
"It's really been fun since we bought this property to be walking the land and finding lakes and ponds that we never knew were there that just the hunting club knew about," Thornton said. "There are a lot of springs and creeks and the views are just incredible. We also have more land on top of the mountain for home sites and for green spaces than we did on Jasper Mountain."
The Marion County Planning Commission recently approved rezoning for 390 residential lots in the first phase of the new River Gorge Ranch. Ultimately, Thornton said he expects the development will grow to include 2,500 lots, or nearly double the 1,300 or so lots planned at Jasper Highlands.
Just off of the Interstate 24 Haletown exit, Exit 161, River Gorge Ranch will be about a 20-minute drive to Chattanooga and will offer a similar appeal to what has drawn retirees and other homebuyers from 48 states and eight different countries to Jasper Highlands, according to Dane Bradshaw, president of Thunder Enterprises.
Bradshaw said the new development will include lots atop Aetna Mountain similar in size to Jasper Highlands with 1 to 1.5 acres each for most parcels. At the gated entrance to the community, a commercial village is planned with a restaurant, rental cabins, health spa and store to serve both residents and visitors at River Gorge Ranch.
Within the gated community, swimming pools, tennis or pickleball courts and sidewalks, among other amenities, should help create a sense of community, even with home lots more spread out compared with most residential developments.
Staff Photo by Robin Rudd / This view of Nickajack, along a TVA transmission line, is an example of the views that will be crated when Aetna Mountain is developed by Thornton Enterprises."Like at Jasper Highlands, we want to offer seclusion without isolation," Bradshaw said in a phone interview.
Outside the mountaintop gate, developers hope to begin construction by this summer of a restaurant for their new development, which will be open to both residents and visitors. The Top of the Rock restaurant built at the entrance of Jasper Highlands "has been a huge success," Thornton said, and he hopes to have similar amenities atop Aetna Mountain.
Unlike Jasper Highlands, River Gorge Ranch will include sidewalks and bike paths through most of the developed areas.
"The No. 1 amenity people say they want are places for walking and hiking, so we'll be developing sidewalks along most of the lots." Bradshaw said.
Thornton said he hopes to have a new and wider road up to the top of Aetna mountain completed and utilities available in about a year, although the existing roadway up the mountain can be used to begin to develop some sites.
Thunder Enterprises, which is based in Kimball and continues to work on adding more sites at Jasper Highlands, should begin selling some sites for future homes at River Gorge Ranch later this month. Thornton said he envisions selling the 2,500 or so home lots over the next seven to 10 years.
"With such a great inventory of lots, we think we can offer a great value for homebuyers, especially those who buy into the development early on," Bradshaw said."We think we will offer a luxury, first-class mountaintop gated community at a very affordable all-in price, and being located in Marion County, the property taxes will be lower than in most of the country."
Prices are still being set for the new lots as they are opened up and developed, Bradshaw said. The lots in Jasper Highlands typically range from 1 to 5 acres in size and sell anywhere from $70,000 for interior lots up to more than $800,000 for some of the prime bluff-view lots near waterfalls.
Initially, lots of River Gorge Ranch will be priced lower than in Jasper Highlands while roads and utilities are being added to the new development, Thornton said.
Staff Photo by Robin Rudd / Atop Aetna Mountain John "Thunder" Thornton, CEO of Thunder Enterprises, discusses his next project. Last year, Thornton purchased 7,400 acres atop Aetna Mountain, near Haletown, to develop similarly to his Jasper Highlands, just a few miles away. The Times Free Press toured the undeveloped property on November 2, 2021.Although there are several multimillion-dollar homes on the brow built or planned at Jasper Highlands, the average 2,000-square-foot home at Jasper Highlands is priced at about $650,000. A recent study by University of Tennessee at Chattanooga economist Bento Lobo estimates Jasper Highlands will bring nearly $700 million of new investment into Marion County by the time the property buyers build homes on their lots over the next decade.
The 8,893-acre mountain community at Jasper Highlands is currently home to about 350 residents. When fully developed, Jasper Highlands is expected to comprise more than 1,200 homes and 2,500 to 3,000 residents.
Over the next decade, River Gorge Ranch is expected to swell the population on Aetna Mountain from about 10 residents today to an estimated 5,000 or more once the development is fully built out. Similar to Jasper Highlands, most of the homebuyers are expected to be retirees or near-retirees, although the development is not age restricted. Because of its proximity to Chattanooga, River Gorge Ranch may also attract a bigger share of working-age residents, Thornton said.
The new development is just west of the 2,600-acre Black Creek Mountain development atop the Raccoon Mountain ridge west of downtown Chattanooga.
Black Creek is a more conventional, denser development with city sewers. But both of the mountaintop developments, along with the new Cameron Harbor project taking shape at the site of the former Rarity Club on Nickajack Lake, are drawing local workers and relocating seniors.
"I think the draw of our county is the beauty of this area with the river and our mountains, combined with a very low property tax rate and cost of living," said Marion County Mayor David Jackson. "That's why I think Jasper Highlands was so successful, and we hope Aetna Mountain will be as well."
Contact Dave Flessner at dflessner@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6340. Follow him on Twitter @dflessner1.
Staff Photo by Robin Rudd / Dane Bradshaw, President of Thunder Enterprises discusses the project. John "Thunder" Thornton has recently purchased 7,400 acres atop Aetna Mountain, near Haletown, to develop similarly to his Jasper Highlands, just a few miles away.