Dozens of top engineers from across Tennessee toured the construction site last Friday of the future home of the Chattanooga Lookouts to learn about the city’s unique mixed-use stadium project, which is already redefining the western gateway into Chattanooga and spurring development in the South Broad District, officials said. The visiting engineers were members of the Leadership PE program offered by the American Council of Engineering Companies of Tennessee (ACEC Tennessee).
“I want to thank the Lookouts and Perimeter Properties for making it easy to show off Chattanooga to our visitors who we convened from across the state to learn about this exciting project,” said Mark Harrison, P.E., P.G., director at large at ACEC Tennessee.
“From the innovative adaptive-reuse aspects to the grade-level concourse, we are leaving impressed and excited to return for a ballgame.”
The mixed-use stadium will be jointly owned by the City of Chattanooga and Hamilton County, and is expected to spur $1 billion in new investment and $2.3 billion in economic impact to the area, according to an independent analysis conducted by Younger. Not only is the stadium development expected to pay for itself through future tax revenue generated around the stadium through a financial tool known as a TIF, but it will generate $186 million in new education funding for Hamilton County Schools and $102 million in new tax revenue for the City and County over the next 30 years, without raising taxes, according to the independent analysis.
“Our community’s new multi-purpose stadium is attracting regional attention a full year before the first pitch has been thrown,” said Rich Mozingo, president of the Chattanooga Lookouts. “We have always said this project is about much more than baseball – it’s about honoring our industrial past and building something unique for the next generation of Chattanoogans. We’re proud to show it off even during construction.”
“The best part of my job these days is showing people the incredible progress we’re making at this historic site, which is already driving local investment to the South Broad District,” said Andy Stone, partner at Perimeter Properties. “It was a pleasure and an honor to show the members of ACEC Tennessee what we are building here because as our state’s top engineers, they fully appreciate the vision and challenge of this remarkable project.”
Jim Irwin, a nationally recognized master developer with award-winning experience restoring legacy structures for modern uses — including Neuhoff in Nashville and Ponce City Market in Atlanta — is overseeing the construction of the stadium and the surrounding development. All relevant partners have agreed to a Development Agreement to ensure the development meets key investment milestones and a Community Benefits Agreement (the first in Chattanooga’s history) to ensure the economic and social benefits of the development benefit all people in the area, officials said.