Three weeks before Election Day and without approval from state authorities, the East Ridge City Council has announced a major development deal near Camp Jordan.
"We know we're in the midst of an election and everyone is so sensitive about news," Mayor Mike Steele said. "But that's not why we're doing this."
The deal joins East Ridge and Wolftever Development on 58 acres adjacent to Interstate 75's Exit 1 and located off Ringgold Road. The property currently is occupied by an America's Best Value Inn, one of the city's two fire halls and hundreds of trees.
Wolftever Development owner Matt Wood said he had no commitments from any businesses to locate on the property, but he intends to make it a retail hub. He mentioned fast-food chains, sit-down diners and a catch-all clothing chain, noting that a Costco operates across the state line, just down I-75.
"The traffic count here is more than anywhere in Hamilton County," he said. "You can take that out of your bag to sell to businesses, and it works."
Wood estimated that 120,000 cars a day drive by the site.
Plans call for East Ridge to buy the land and then sell it to Wood.
But there are some hitches. For one, the land is in the city's flood plain.
"Matt will have to assure the property will not be flooded," Steele said.
Steele and Wood also said they didn't know if the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation would reject the deal because of wetlands regulations, but the mayor said it is a possibility. They said they haven't contacted TDEC yet.
Secondly, the Tennessee Department of Transportation owns the trees on the property, which is considered "excess land" by the state.
TDOT spokeswoman Jennifer Flynn said the department has declined to sell about one-third of the property requested by the city, but she wasn't sure which portions were refused. Finalizing the property sale will take time, she said.
In the deal's first leg, East Ridge must pay TDOT and America's Best Value Inn for the property, but Steele said he doesn't know how much that will cost. After those sales go through, East Ridge will turn around and sell the property to Wood.
There was no open bidding process for the deal.
"They came to us," Steele said.
The East Ridge City Council voted 5-0 on Tuesday to accept a "binding letter of intent" promising that Wood would reimburse the city for any money spent in the transaction.
Steele released a city document that estimated a sales tax boost of $2 million if the property is developed.
"You have to make assumptions, there's no way around that," Steele said.
Wood said political considerations didn't play into the announcement's timing since he must start making "hard money" payments to the owner of the America's Best Value Inn by Friday.
"The timing of this was not generated with an election cycle in mind," Steele said.
Wood said he will demolish the inn to begin construction on a new hotel. His firm also is responsible for building a new fire hall on Ringgold Road after they place a second hotel at that location, he said.
In 2008, wetlands regulations and financing problems prevented a water theme park in East Ridge, a business deal that was supposed to reinvigorate the economy and bring 6,000 visitors to the city every day.
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