A new multifamily residential complex with 387 units could soon rise on the site of a shuttered manufacturing plant on Riverside Drive.
Developer Chris Senn will ask the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Regional Planning Commission on Tuesday for approval to rezone the nearly 18-acre swath of land at 950 Riverside Drive — the site of the old Cumberland Corp. and Cannon Equipment factory — from manufacturing to residential.
The site is behind Erlanger and near the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
Senn, vice president of Blanchard and Calhoun Commercial in Augusta, Ga., hopes to build several three- and four-story buildings on the parcel, as well as a clubhouse and a pool, according to planning agency documents. Senn has been working on the project for several months, but was unavailable for comment Wednesday.
Regional planning staff recommended that the commission approve the rezoning and give the project the go ahead, in part because it’s a difficult tract of land to build on. The lot is surrounded by manufacturing, and is buffered by Citico Creek, a Tennessee-American water treatment plant, Erlanger, wetlands and a rail yard.
However, the city’s proposed expansion of Central Avenue could extend right through the complex, planners noted.
“The applicant’s plan does indicate buildings fronting on the proposed Central Avenue extension, which is anticipated to have pedestrian-oriented features such as sidewalks, bike lanes and street trees,” the Regional Planning Agency summary reads.
If approved, the project would be one of the largest such complexes within striking distance of downtown. Cameron Harbor, another riverside project underway on the other side of downtown, is slated to create 235 apartments, 30 condominiums, 19 luxury townhomes, 20 single-family homes and 71 cottage homes.
But experts said that Chattanooga’s housing market is strong enough to absorb the new supply of units.