$100 million Eureka Foundry site proposal with 20-story buildings gets rezoning

July 8, 2024

A Chattanooga planning panel Monday endorsed a zoning change for a proposed project that could now see as many as three 20-story towers go up on the site on downtown’s Southside.

The Chattanooga-Hamilton County Regional Planning Commission recommended the change at the site of the former Eureka Foundry across from Finley Stadium off Reggie White Boulevard.

“To me, it looks like a marquee development,” said panel member Barry Payne about the proposed more than $100 million project.

(READ MORE: Eureka Foundry site to hold 20-story buildings)

Chattanooga developer Chris Curtis said in an interview after the meeting the site could hold hotel space, residences, offices, retail uses, restaurants and parking garages, with the 20-story buildings sitting at the rear of the parcel near U.S. Highway 27.

He said the current concept is two or three 20-story structures with the height of other buildings stepping down lower the closer to Reggie White Boulevard.

The rezoning request now goes to the Chattanooga City Council for its consideration.

But planning commission member Matthew Lyle said at the meeting he still worries about the effect on Chattanooga’s skyline from the 20-story towers.

“Twelve (stories) is high enough,” said Lyle, who voted against the proposal.

He added he received comments from “a fairly high number of people” who feel the same way after reading his concerns from a prior meeting about protecting the city’s scenic beauty.

“I don’t think it’s good precedent,” Lyle said.

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Commission member Nathaniel Bird asked why not just put the buildings at 12 stories.

Kaitlin Sims, who is working with the developer, said at the meeting the idea is to place the tallest buildings near U.S. 27 with smaller ones nearer the stadium.

“It makes sense in the style of the development,” she said.

Also, Curtis is planning to save some of the old historic foundry buildings, which tend to be about one-story in height, as part of the development, Sims said.

“It’s important to preserve history,” she said.

Panel member Chris Anderson said the proposed project provides much needed density.

“This is what it looks like,” he said.

Anderson said the proximity near U.S. 27 is “the perfect location for 20 stories.”

Sims said a 20-story building already was earlier approved for The Bend, the mixed-use development nearby off Riverfront Parkway at the former Alstom production plant.

(READ MORE: Developer in talks at The Bend)

Also, another building up to 20 stories was earlier OKed for a central city location at Market and 11th streets.

Curtis said, if approved, plans are to finish demolition now ongoing on the foundry tract and to start putting in infrastructure for the project, including a street grid.

He expected work on new structures could likely begin next year, but he didn’t have a timetable.

“We’re trying to understand what the options are,” Curtis said.

The foundry shut down last year after more than 120 years of operation.

Eureka Foundry was started in 1902, and the company remained in the same family for four generations. The ductile and gray iron foundry business had been on the Southside site since 1980, when Eureka took over the former Ross-Meehan foundry.

The building housing the aging foundry was erected, in part, in 1920, and the foundry owners said the cost of maintaining the facility had proven too much to remain competitive with other metal casting and foundry operations.

Contact Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6318.