Kim White
Downtown Chattanooga is moving close to 20,000 permanent residents and sharply increasing the tax revenue it produces, Rivercity Company Executive Director Kim White told members of the Downtown Council of the Chattanooga Chamber of Commerce on Thursday morning.
She said downtown had 12,974 residents in 2010. It is on track for 19,980 by 2020.
Ms. White said tax revenue paid by downtown businesses and residents is up 38.52 percent since 2013.
She said, "And that is just the beginning because of all the developments that are planned or underway."
Ms. White said the downtown tax revenue is up $4.9 million per year since 2014 as over 3,000 new apartments come online.
She said the total downtown tax take is $32.2 million. It is at $44.5 million counting the North Shore.
She told the group at the Bessie Smith Hall that downtown produces $34,000 per acre in property tax income - compared to $8,800 per acre at Hamilton Place.
Downtown includes just 510 acres, she noted.
Ms. White said a recently completed parking study is helping to bring answers to downtown parking issues.
She said it was found that a sizable portion of parking spots are off-limits to the public. She said Rivercity has been talking with owners of private parking garages, including Unum, on the possibility of allowing some public use.
She said the garage owners have not said a definite no, but she said there are some issues to be worked through. Those include lease agreements they have with some individuals and groups, security and maintenance concerns, and the cost of installing new equipment.
She said the pitch is that the parking garage owners could gain some significant income from adding public users.
The speaker said she would like to see more money going to CARTA to expand its downtown shuttle system to help connect more remote parking areas, such as the Finley Stadium lot, with downtown.
Ms. White said the work at Miller Park should be completed by July or August. She said $6.1 million of the cost was raised privately, with the city putting in $4.2 million. It will include a rock outcropping at one end and a glass pavilion that is lit at night on the other.
She said the design work on improvements at nearby Patten Parkway are about 30 percent complete. She said that project will start as soon as Miller Park is ready.
The speaker said Patten Parkway is seen as a connector to downtown from such areas as UTC and the MLK District.
Ms. White said it appears the off-again, on-again Chattanooga Bank Building project is back on. She said architect Heidi Hefferlin is working on updating the plans for residential and commercial reuse.
She said the conversion of the former Gold Building to a Westin Hotel has sparked new life in that section of downtown, and a $28 million renovation of the historic Read House is progressing.
A Moxy hotel is rising near the St. John's Restaurant on the Southside.