A new 300-unit housing complex is being planned near a Chattanooga Lookouts (Double-A; Southern League) ballpark, within the special tax district set up to help fund the new facility.
The plan would create a 470-acre special tax district surrounding the eight-acre ballpark location, which is part of a 141-acre Wheland Foundry/U.S. Pipe site in the South Broad District development. Increased tax revenues–state/local sales and property–generated by the development would be used to partially pay for the $79.4 million ballpark; the Lookouts would also pay $1 million annually in rent. A new entity, the Chattanooga Sports Authority, will own the ballpark and issue bonds for the project, with the Lookouts also committed to $45 million in future maintenance and other operational costs as well as booking events beyond the MiLB season.
At least one apartment/condo complex is planned for the special tax district as of now, which means any new revenues created by economic group would go back to pay down bonding for the project. From the Chattanooga Times Free Press:
The project, estimated at from $60 million to $80 million, would put the planned housing in the heart of the South Broad District on a now mostly vacant tract at Williams and West 27th streets, said Allen Jones of Stone Creek Consulting in an interview.
“It’s close to the new ballpark,” he said after a rezoning of the 4.3-acre site for the project received the OK from the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Regional Planning Commission. “It’s a new neighborhood quickly springing up.”
Jones said the development will be market-rate housing, but he didn’t have any rents for the planned apartments yet. He said about 65% of the project will be apartments. The townhouses will be for sale, but Jones didn’t have price points.
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