One of Chattanooga's largest office parks is preparing to become home to a proposed five-building apartment complex in East Brainerd.
Pointe Centre office park off Premier Drive would hold about 247 apartments, said Ryan Allen, vice president of landowner Pointe Property Group, in a telephone interview.
The planned project, which would be done in partnership with Brand Properties of Atlanta, is slated to go on a vacant 12-acre tract within the sprawling business park, he said.
Allen said the apartments would provide new housing to professionals on that side of the city.
"Chattanooga is a growing community, especially the East Brainerd market," he said. "We always felt the Pointe Centre was well positioned in this market."
Allen said apartments are well absorbed in the Chattanooga market, and Pointe Centre has existing infrastructure to accommodate that use.
The proposed project is scheduled to go before the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Regional Planning Commission on Monday. The developers are seeking to lift a condition related to the number of apartments it can put up, Allen said.
The site is off East Brainerd Road near Interstate 75, where the office park started in 1998. The approximately 50-acre business park holds eight office buildings with parking, including a structure that has the Social Security Administration at 1290 Premier Drive.
According to a plan submitted to the Regional Planning Agency, the largest building in the proposed apartment complex would hold about 160 units. The other buildings would hold from eight to 28 units each, the plan shows.
Called the Meadows at Pointe Center, the project also would have 343 surface parking spaces and 16 garage spaces, the site plan shows. It would hold a pool and a building for amenities.
The office park, which boasts a fitness center and walking trail, would be about built out if the apartments are constructed, said Allen.
He said a benefit to the apartments is that the units would minimize traffic compared to high-density offices.
"Patterns are staggered," Allen said. "That's a good spin-off here."
Apartment construction in the Chattanooga area is robust.
Last month, a development group proposed construction of about 220 apartments on a 12.6-acre tract off Mountain Creek Road.
In August, a Chattanooga rezoning group gave approval for a South Carolina development company to put up a pair of 5-story apartment buildings on a parcel off Manufacturers Road on the North Shore.
In April, a 256-unit apartment complex in the Ooltewah market was proposed on 15.3 acres on Old Lee Highway. Bobby Adamson of Adamson Developers said seven, three-story buildings will go up at that site along with a clubhouse.
Contact Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6318. Follow him on Twitter @MikePareTFP.