The area around Main Street is looking up and a prominent Chattanooga restaurant operator plans to open "a first-class restaurant" there, Lyndhurst Foundation President Jack Murrah said.
He told the Southside Chamber of Commerce, "Main Street is in a come-back mode. It has a bright future."
Mr. Murrah said Ken Hays, former aide to Mayor Jon Kinsey, has bought a house nearby in the revived Fort Negley and will move off Signal Mountain to downtown.
He said Fort Negley is one of three once-blighted communities that Lyndhurst provided seed money to help revive.
Mr. Murrah said the old Rustville is now prospering Cowart Place, where home values have almost doubled.
He said when he and others began planning to bring Rustville back along a redeveloped 17th Street "there weren't many people who did anything but laugh at the idea."
He said that area had few homes left "and was considered a lost cause."
Mr. Murrah said much of the area was acquired, and the first townhouses were built along 17th Street. He said single white females were among the urban pioneers there.
He said, "It is remarkable the number of housing units there now."
Mr. Murrah cited a similar revival at Jefferson Heights - off Main Street in the vicinity of several streets named for Presidents.