Downtown Chattanooga continues to thrive despite a national real estate downturn, RiverCity Company President Paul K. Brock Jr. told the Rotary Club on Thursday.
"We are still riding the crest of the wave of the 21st Century Waterfront," Mr. Brock said.
He also said Chattanooga should aim to become "a sustainable community" with a focus on "green" buildings, recycling and other earth-friendly measures. He said it is a great way to market the city "and also it is the right thing to do."
He also said Chattanooga should "do all we can to retain college-educated young people."
Mr. Brock said the RiverCity Company is joining in a partnership with UTC and the Lyndhurst and Benwood foundation promoting green buildings. He said the new Greenlife Grocery on Manufacturers Road is projected to be the first and some 18-20 others are on the way.
He said a redevelopment of an old hotel on Cherry Street by Mike McGauley should also qualify as a green building project.
Mr. Brock said the upsurge in development is extending south to areas like Main Street, which he said is becoming "a very cool place to live." He said the development of the Union Gospel Mission property at Main and Market should be one of the next items.
He said a couple of decades ago the downtown section "rolled up the sidewalks at 5, and after dark it was not a good place to be." He said one of the few places to dine was the Green Room at the Read House.
He said there now are over 100 dining choices downtown, and he said many are locally owned.
Mr. Brock said work on a master plan for the U.S. Pipe/Wheland Foundry property is nearing completion, and the report will be released in January.
He said his "biggest disappointment by far" is the fact that the Mayfair on Market project was announced 23 months ago at the dilapidated 700 block of Market Street and work has still not begun. He said RiverCity is still working with developer Trey Stanley, but it is uncertain whether the project will go forward.
Here is the full text of Mr. Brock's speech:
I have been incredibly fortunate in my business career to have some awesome opportunities and to work with some very talented people. In my stints with the Creative Discovery Museum, Siskin Children’s Institute and RiverCity Company, I have been able to participate in and contribute to the revitalization of our downtown.
Today I’ll start with a very brief history of our remarkable downtown turnaround and how RiverCity came into being. I’ll touch on a few core principles that guide us and I’ll share a little of what we have learned from an urban legend. Then I will shift gears a bit and fast forward to today and talk about the evolving character of downtown as well as touch on several projects that will help to shape our downtown in the years ahead.
I joined Brock Candy Company in 1980. Just three years earlier, the company had moved from its downtown location of 70 years on Chestnut Street to Jersey Pike off Highway 153. I would make my daily commute from Lookout to work and it was the infrequent occasion especially during the 1980’s when I would have cause to come downtown. Of course, as those of you who were here during the 80’s will remember, there was very little reason for anyone to come downtown unless your place of business was in the downtown area. All of the major department stores had fled the downtown and moved to the malls; downtown dining was primarily limited to the Green Room at the Read House or a few private clubs. Downtown was not a desired residential choice with the last significant housing development being Cameron Hill, which opened in 1974. Chances are that if you were going down to the riverfront area- you were probably going to buy tires or get your radiator repaired. In fact, many people used to say that the sidewalks were rolled up at 5:00 each day and that you didn’t want to be downtown after dark. I know that is hard to believe given the great downtown we have today, but that was the case some short 20-plus years ago.
So let’s step back in time to the early 80’s and touch on how our DT renaissance came about. There were two key initiatives that I believe created the foundation for the rebirth of our downtown. There was Vision 2000 which was kicked off in 1984. This was a public process lead by a non profit group, Chattanooga Venture. Vision 2000 invited people to come together and dream about what they wanted Chattanooga to look like in the year 2000. More than 1700 people participated in the process and more than 40 commitment opportunities were developed for downtown and riverfront development. Vision 2000 was a process that forever changed the way we do business in the community. It gave community residents an opportunity to have a voice in what they wanted to see happen. It brought people together from all walks of life to collectively develop a shared vision. Just recently we have had opportunity to seek public input and the out of town facilitators have remarked at how easy it is to get Chattanoogans to participate in a constructive way.
The second major initiative was the work of the Moccasin Bend Task force. Formed in 1982 to develop a plan for the redevelopment of the 600 acre peninsula just across the river, the task force efforts morphed into a much broader major economic development effort. Unveiled in 1985, the TN Riverpark Master Plan was a 20 year, 22 mile blueprint calling for $750 million dollars of economic redevelopment along the riverfront beginning at Chickamauga Dam extending down to Marion County.
Quoting from the plan summary, “The overall strategy with the creation of the Tennessee Riverpark is to develop an environment which will tie together many of the historical, natural, cultural and recreational resources of the community. It is this great Riverpark system which will bring Chattanooga quickly back to the river, draw national attention to the city and charge the engines of economic growth. In Chattanooga, an appropriate balance of riverfront uses, with an emphasis on public and commercial recreation, will require a comprehensive implementation strategy.”
The summary continues, “A principal element of such a strategy should be modeled in the public/private efforts which have occurred in other cities around the country. This partnership must go beyond merely working out which entities will contribute projects within the plan. This partnership must be extended to cover the overall coordination and management of the development process as well as the long-term administration of the Riverpark system.”
These were the words that lead to RCC’s creation. A downtown not for profit development company whose mission was to wake up every day working to implement this ambitious plan. As is the case in Chattanooga, generous foundations and financial institutions stepped forward to capitalize the company with $12 million dollars so that it could begin its very important work.
Some of the early work of the company included the acquisition of significant portions of property along the riverfront. In total, more than 26 acres were purchased between 1986 and 1993. Much of this property was the home of shut down and declining businesses, abandoned manufacturing sites, empty trolley barns and the Kirkman Technical High School. The idea behind these property acquisitions was that if you wanted to ensure the property was developed to its highest and best use, you needed to control it. Today, when you walk along the riverfront district, sites that serve as the homes of the Creative Discovery Museum, the Imax, the TN Aquarium, the hotels north of 4th street to the river, ATT ballfield, and Big River Brewery, these were all properties that were one time in the hands of the RiverCity Company. From my perspective, one would have to say the company did a pretty good job in helping to find the appropriate uses for these sites.
One of the first projects that began to reconnect the community with the river and I think one of our grandest accomplishments was the development of the Tennessee Riverpark. Both the City of Chattanooga and Hamilton County Governments participated in its funding, and today they still share the maintenance costs. With contributions both small and large on the part of individuals, corporations, the RiverCity Company and foundations, particularly the Lyndhurst Foundation, the Tennessee Riverpark was one of the earliest in this community’s proud parade of public/private partnerships. Some say that it was the successful completion of the first phase of the Riverwalk that gave us the collective confidence to move forward with other public private partnerships.
The company was also a key player in the planning and design of the Tennessee Aquarium, Coolidge Park, as well as the developer of the Riverset Apartment complex. More recently the company served as the Master Developer of the 21st Century Waterfront development that opened in May of 2005. This incredible $120 million, 35 month project allowed our community to complete its reconnection to the river and served to further catalyze the redevelopment of our downtown, particularly the downtown housing market.
So let me tell you a little about the RiverCity Company and the work we are about today. We must start with the mission of the company which is to ensure a vibrant, attractive downtown that is the economic, social and cultural centerpiece of the Chattanooga region by developing downtown real estate, making and programming great urban spaces, and employing creative urban design.
In support of the mission are a set of core principles which guide our work everyday. I want to touch on a few of them because they are at the essence of what we do and they have been integral I believe in helping to create and shape the great downtown we have today.
- Let me begin with the principle of inclusion. That is the belief that downtown is for everyone. We believe that a downtown comprised of people of all ages, colors, beliefs, and economic strata make for a more vibrant and vital downtown. To that end for example we work to ensure there is a full continuum of housing in our downtown so that anyone who wants to live in our downtown will be able to find housing that they can afford. This past week’s announcement of the 120 unit Walnut Commons apartment project on Walnut Avenue is a positive step toward achieving that goal and I applaud the City and the developers, John Clark, David Hudson and Bob McKenzie for working to make it happen.
- Partnering- the premise that partnerships should be created and strengthened as a way of getting things done. Throughout the history of the company, from our community’s greatest successes, the Riverwalk, the Tennessee Aqaurium and the 21st Century Waterfront project, to smaller initiatives such as the wayfinding, public art and the urban design studio, it has always been organizations and people coming together in partnership to get things done for the benefit of the community and not worrying about who gets the credit. As my predecessor Ken Hayes used to always say, “working together works” and the beneficiary of this ideal is our community.
- Citizen Involvement: City building should be accompanied by wide ranging citizen involvement. You want and need the engagement of your citizens if you are to make your city great. From Vision 2000 to the development of the 21st Century waterfront vision, the idea that bringing people together to establish a collective vision is embedded in our DNA. It is what we call the Chattanooga Way. And it is the Chattanooga Way that 50 plus visiting city groups and organizations come to Chattanooga each year to learn about.
- The final principle I will touch on today is quality. It is the idea that whatever is done in our downtown should be of the highest quality. We should never allow things to be built in our downtown that do not exemplify our commitment to the highest level of design, materials, and form. We must all remember that whatever gets built in our downtown is something that we will have to live with for years to come. So, it is our collective responsibility to keep the bar high and not lessen our quality standards.
When I think and speak of these principles and others such as the importance of place, history, genuine and synergy, my mind goes to Stroud Watson, my good friend and teacher and one of downtown’s staunchest defenders and champions. Stroud retired earlier this year but not before helping to leave this community a much better place than how he found it. I want share with you a section of a tribute to Stroud that was penned by Rick Montague because it goes to the heart of building a great downtown.
“Stroud brought a whole new way of thinking to our city: under his tutelage, we began our discussions with Principles, exploring and uncovering the moral and historical principles before we examined the aesthetic ones. We learned that city building and new urbanism are, at the heart, about morality, justice and equality. We learned that Chattanooga should aspire to be the Best Mid Sized City in America, and that high quality endures and uplifts while building and designing on the cheap degrades a community and undermines the collective sense of well being. We learned what a public realm was, and against all odds, a surprisingly large number of people began to fight for such a thing and to take great pride in it, even as the country’s political climate encouraged people to belittle everything that was public and elevated every notion that was private. We learned about and relentlessly pursued urbanism while the rest of the country attempted to suburbanize city centers. We learned a new vocabulary from Stroud. We sought higher standards of design and finish. We began to see and understand the shapes of the world’s cities under Stroud. We began to build a city that nearly every visitor envies and is appreciated and respected by those who live here, as Chattanoogans had not done in a long, long time.”
This is a very fitting and appropriate tribute to a very special person who has done much to advance the quality development, both public and private, that has occurred in our downtown these past 25 years. I am pleased to share that the great work that Stroud began will be continued through a partnership between UTC and RiverCity. This summer, the RiverCity Company Professorship of Urban Planning and Design was created and has been filled by Jon Coddington. Jon is an immensely talented and experienced individual who will serve as our lead champion in advocating and facilitating quality urban planning and design in our community. You know, today, we have a great downtown, but much works remains to be done, and we must be diligent to ensure that what comes next continues to build on past success and that we remain committed to those very high quality standards that have brought us to the place we are today.
So let’s talk more specifically about the downtown and some of the projects that RCC is involved in. In my opinion, we are still riding the crest of the wave created by the 21st Century Waterfront project. Our walkable, livable downtown is attracting more and more investment in new housing construction. Even with a national slowdown in housing, we are in the midst of the biggest downtown housing boom in my life time and probably in our city’s history. From the Northshore, to Walnut Hill to the Southside, condos, townhouses, multi-family and single family residential units are being built and being occupied. In our most recent brochure that promotes Downtown living, we note that more than 1,100 new housing units have been recently completed, underway or announced. The total dollar value of this residential construction is in excess of $300 million dollars from more than 30 different developers. Yes, we are not totally immune from the national real estate slowdown, but overall the downtown housing market continues to be strong. This is a dramatic shift from just 14 short years ago, when the RiverCity Company sought private developers to develop and build an apartment complex and ended up having to develop the Riverset Apartments itself since no private developer was prepared to entertain such a risky venture as building downtown housing overlooking the Tennessee River. Hard to believe today!
We now have a plethora of eating establishments from which to choose. At last count, the number of restaurants in the downtown footprint was well in excess of 100 with new ones coming on line every month. Certainly, this stands in stark contrast to the offerings that existed in the downtown even some five years ago. With new dining options, Chattanoogans have become more discerning diners and will not accept mediocrity in restaurants like we did a few years ago. And a very cool thing about a good number of these restaurants is that they are owned and operated by local folk. Locally owned businesses are critical as they add to the uniqueness, distinction and economic viability of our downtown! Research has shown that locally owned businesses return approximately 60-80% of each dollar spent back to the community as compared to 20-40% of sales at chains and franchises. Buying local is a great way to boost the economic base of our community and I want to strongly encourage each of you in this room to buy local. And while I am on the buy it local theme I want to encourage you to support the Chattanooga Market, which happens to be housed in the RiverCity offices. Thirty-four Sundays a year at the First Tennessee pavilion you have the opportunity to purchase locally grown produce and buy wonderful handcrafted art products. Most cities would kill to have a market like ours, so let’s all be sure to help grow our local economy and encourage entrepreneurship by supporting the Chattanooga Market and all of our locally owned businesses.
With the renovation of Ross’s Landing we have completed our return to the river. It is a wonderful place for residents and visitors alike to come to reflect, to play and to celebrate. Today you can walk along the river from Ross’s Landing all the way to Chickamauga Dam. In fact we now have more than 12 miles of Riverwalk for our community to enjoy. Public art has become an integral part of our downtown fabric. City districts from the Northshore to the Southside are growing up and coming back. Private development in almost all sections of the downtown area is strong.
On the Northshore, the recently completed Renaissance Park is the latest gem in our public park system. This 23 acre park is an awesome redevelopment of a brownfield site and demonstrates the wisdom of this public investment as more than $80 million of private investment is now occurring in the immediate area of the park. Not a bad return on $8 million public investment. I especially want to recognize the North Shore Two development where Greenlife Grocery will be the first LEED certified green building in our community. LEED is an acronym for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design and we hope that this is the first of what will become numerous LEED certified projects in our community. In fact, a new partnership among RiverCity, the Lyndhurst and Benwood Foundations, and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga is Green Spaces. This is a three year initiative with the goal to develop and promote Chattanooga through green building, with a view to improved public health and economic prosperity. The comprehensive program will include funding to create 18-20 LEED certified building projects in the downtown area, a resource center to showcase best residential and commercial practices, a green building awareness program and an internship program. I am also pleased to share that the first participant in this program is Rotary’s own Mike McGauley whose building on Cherry Street at 7th currently under renovation and the future home of RiverStreet Architecture renovation will be a LEED certified project. Great work, Mike and RiverStreet Architecture!
With the strong leadership of the Lyndhurst Foundation and in close partnership with the City, CNE and RiverCity, the Southside and, in particular, the Main Street area is undergoing an incredible and rapid revitalization. From the new housing in Jefferson Heights to the revitalization of housing stock in the Fort Negly area, to the opening of new restaurants and businesses, to new sidewalks, street lighting, and public art, the Main Street area is growing up to be very cool place to live, work and play. And as amazing as this past 18 month transformation has been the next 12 months should bring even more dramatic change to the area. A project to look for in the coming months will be the redevelopment of the Union Gospel property. With a loan from the Lyndhurst Foundation, the RiverCity Company acquired this key southside property on the corner of Market and Main directly across from Battle Elementary School. It is our intention to put out a request for proposal for the property in the coming months. We think there will be tremendous interest in the redevelopment of this site and are excited about the potential it holds to serve as an anchor for further stimulating growth and development on the Southside.
Of course I would be remiss if I did not mention the largest downtown development project. The Blue Cross/ Blue Shield 900,0000 plus square feet office complex on Cameron Hill is now rising out of the ground and will forever change the downtown skyline in a very positive and dramatic fashion. I want to acknowledge how fortunate we are to have BC/BS choose to build their new complex in our downtown area as they could have just as easily built outside of the downtown area or even relocated to Nashville or Memphis.
With the BC/BS move to Cameron Hill come a series of questions which include: What will be the impact on downtown and downtown businesses when Blue and their 3000 downtown office employees move to their new home on Cameron Hill? Who will occupy the space? How will the space be redeveloped? These are all good and important questions to which there are currently no answers. What I can say is that BC/BS has engaged NAI Charter Real Estate and the Staubach Company to aggressively market these properties on a nation wide basis and that there is a great deal of interest in the properties. These are terrific properties and we are optimistic that good things will happen with them.
Before I go any further, let me turn to the 700 Block of Market Street. In my three years with RiverCity my biggest disappointment, by far, has been the fact that we have not been successful in seeing this block get redeveloped. Now more than 23 months since the public announcement of the Mayfair on Market, the project has still not commenced. Instead it remains a blight in the middle of our CBD and unfortunately its immediate redevelopment is in question. All I can say on this particular matter is that we are continuing to work closely with the developer and are hopeful that this project will commence shortly. We remain committed to doing all that we can to try and ensure that something positive happens on this key downtown property.
The RiverCity Company is working with the owners of the US Pipe/Wheland site, the Lyndhurst Foundation as well as the city of Chattanooga to facilitate the redevelopment of this former 137-acre former industrial site. As we all are aware, this property occupies a strategic gateway position to our city coming in from the west. The planning process is being led by Urban Design Associates from Pittsburg, Pa., and we hope to receive the master plan for the site within the next few weeks. The redevelopment of the US Pipe/Wheland site represents a unique and potentially catalytic opportunity to build on the principles and success of the past two decades of Chattanooga’s downtown revitalization.
Finally, I want to touch on a partnership among the Chamber, private foundations, UTC, the City, and major downtown property and business stakeholders. Last year we convened this group to discuss the future of downtown and its ongoing redevelopment. From those discussions the decision was made to engage a firm to create an economic development plan for our downtown. In May of 2006, Angelou Economic out of Austin, Tex., was hired. They then spent the latter half of the 2006 year surveying the business and residential community, meeting individually with public and private sector leadership
and conducting focus groups with residents, retailers and young professionals. Out of that work the following vision statement was developed:
“Downtown Chattanooga will become a vibrant, premiere location of choice for clean, compatible, and innovative businesses and energetic, creative, and educated citizens.”
Now, I don’t know about you, but that is certainly a vision I cannot only buy into, but get excited about. Since receiving the plan earlier this year we have been taking the goals and strategies and putting together implementation plans. In early January of 2008 we will be sharing the plan publicly as well as the initiatives that are underway that will help to make that vision a reality. When the plan is announced I think it will become clear that the plan has been a great catalyst for much of the work that the RiverCity Company and our partners have been doing these past 12 months.
Let me conclude my remarks by briefly laying out a couple of opportunities I think we need to focus on as a community. First, we need to be doing all we can to retain and attract young college educated people. This is a key goal in the Angelou plan and pops up in all the research we see. Quoting from November 25, 2006, The New York Times edition, “By 2012, the work force will be losing more than two workers for every one it gains. Cities have long competed over job growth, struggling to revive downtowns and improve their image. But the latest population trends have forced them to fight for college educated 25-34 year olds, a demographic increasingly viewed as the key to an economic future.” There are many qualities and characteristics about our city that are attractive to this population group, but if we are not intentional and proactive in our efforts to grow this group as a percentage of our overall population then we have missed a great opportunity and we may well pay for it later down the road.
For many years we talked about Chattanooga being the environmental city. I think it is time we take these efforts to a much higher level! We have all seen the recent headlines about water or in Atlanta’s case the lack of it. We are all being hit in our pocket books by the rising price of crude oil. Most businesses have experienced dramatic increases in raw and packing material prices. Well, I do not believe these things are an aberration, but instead a precursor of what is to come. So how we as a community respond to the fact that there is a finite supply of the world’s natural resources, will have much to do with whether we will have a vibrant local economy in the years ahead. So what should we doing? We need to become a sustainable community! One in which we do not deplete resources that we depend on faster that those resources are replenished. From green building to recycling, from buying local to switching to EBP’s Green Power program, we need to become actively engaged in the work of becoming a sustainable community. Becoming a sustainable community is a great way help to market and sell our city as a great place to live and work. More importantly it is the right thing to do.
Let me conclude my remarks by saying thanks to all of you in this room who have done so much to make our community the great place it is today. We all have much to be proud of and much work ahead of us. Let us move forward together to ensure that we leave this city as a better home for the next generation and beyond. Thanks for letting me be with you this afternoon.
Paul Brock